Worlds Apart Together At Heart
by Im-In-Way-2Many-Fandoms
Summary: Freshwater is away from a place she has come to find home, but has she truly accepted her fate? Will she decide to let the Diamonds control her life forever, or will she fight back against the Authority? Will B9 and Jet find some sort of closure? Did Fresh become more attached to a certain gem than she wants to admit? Read on story to find out how life will turn out for the gems!
1. Announcement

_**Please go back and read my story The Perfect Pearl, or this story is not going to make a lot of sense. I mean you can probably figure out the main characters and what their deal is, but Freshwater, B9, Jet, H11, and D13 are all new characters with their own personalities. Some characters seem like they bitch for no reason, but believe me they have reasons. **_

_**All in all, please go read The Perfect Pearl before you try to tackle this, because while I may remind the reader of certain events that took place, I won't be going in depth in the explanation of these events, as I did that last book. **_


	2. Daydreams

Steven stared at the temple door, biting his lower lip with worry. It had been a few days since they had broken the news to Pearl about Freshwater not coming back, and she didn't seem to have taken it well. Pearl needed her space, and Steven respected that, but it still hurt to know that the gem was grieving and there wasn't much he could do about it.

Pulling the covers up to his chin, he tried to settle in for the night, but his mind wouldn't let him sleep due to the stress of the last couple of days. B9 and Jet had decided to crash with Lapis and Peridot, something the gems were hesitant at first about. While Jet seemed able to get along with anyone and everyone, B9 had a habit of snapping and flying off the handle at unpredictable times, something that made everyone extremely uncomfortable. While the gem hadn't physically attacked anyone, he feared hat he wouldn't be able to say that for long, as her outbursts were becoming more and more common.

The humans stayed with Greg for the most part, the man being gracious enough to share his van and even teach them about life on Earth, with Jet sometimes accompanying them. She said it was because she missed Johnathon and wanted to spend more time with him, something Steven didn't doubt, but he also noted how happy she was when she was away from B9.

Yawning, Steven closed his eyes. He'd have to ask her about it later. For now, though, he needed to rest.

….

Freshwater stared blankly at the reports in front of her, pursing her lips and frowning. Off-Colors roaming Homeworld freely below the surface, Amethyst Guards acting out at the zoo due to the fact that some cod had released the humans residing there – man if she ever got her hands on the gem that did that she'd shatter them on sight. Not to mention that the Crystal Gems wer still out there wreaking havoc and defending that dumb chunk of rock they called Earth.

Disgusting.

Yes, there were many imperfections on Homeworld. All imperfections that she was entrusted to fix. With a small smile, the gem felt her heart swoon. My, my how merciful her Diamond had been. To entrust herself, a Pearl, to watch over Homeworld in her absence while her Diamond decided what to do with the Crystal gems was an honor.

Groaning, the gem put her hands in her hands. Sometimes the stress did get to her, as she felt she couldn't handle it, nor was she deserving of it. There were even days where she felt a deep sadness pass over her, like she was missing something – some_one_. Sure, there was a sort of jolt of adrenaline when she let gems know _exactly _what they were doing wrong and threatened to take them to her Diamond, but scring awa all the ges who feared her made life quite lonely.

It also didn't help that she was having dreams lately. Dreams where she was with another gem that she felt she knew somehow. This gem was extremely beautiful to her – they had bright teal eyes and pale skin, a nice sash to accompany it. They also appeared to be extremely well made, unlike herself. The weird thing was, she would have hazy dreams of being in a forest of some kind with this gem, staring up at a sky that flickered on and off oddly enough. The dreams were always short and she rarely remembered much of what happened in them, but the face of this Pearl was always bored into her mind.

Who was she?

"Defect? Defect!"

Freshwater jumped when she heard her superior addressing her. Looking up, she felt her cheeks darken. "Oh, sorry White." She said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. While she may have been feared on Homeworld, _everyone _feared White Pearl. Nobody knew why she was like….._that_, and nobody _wanted _to know.

White Pearl frowned. "Daydreaming at your desk instead of working?"

Freshwater bit her lower lip, standing and bowing to the gem. "I apologize, White Pearl. She said genuinely. "I was just catching up on the reports my guards were sending me. There is much to fix, and sometimes I grow weary. Forgive me."

White Pearl pursed her lips. "Fair enough. I highly suggest you take a short nap before you return to your work. Do not let this happen again." She said before turning and gliding out of the gem's room.

Freshwater nodded, not dropping her salute until the gem had left. Sighing, the gem shut her systems down and turned off the lights, climbing into bed. She enjoyed having her own space to work, courtesy of White Diaond herself, but sharing this space with the Pearls could be a bit…..frustrating.

Blue was alright, she supposed. Soft spoken, and enjoyed to draw. Yellow grated on her nerves every now and then, but she rarely had to interact with her as she was always roaming Homeworld. White, though….White just threw her for a loop in general, her vacant stare and monotone voice making everyone uncomfortable. Unfortunately, she had to interact with her daily, as she had to give her reports and updates on things she needed.

Yawning and stretching, Freshwater turned on her side. She rarely ever slept, and didn't even know where she had picked the habit up from, but it rejuvenated her every time. Her dreams were always adventurous too, even if they were a bit frightening. Things like running from a fierce Agate and jumping onto a ship only to be yanked back down again, trying to fuse with a human (she cringed at this every time she thought about it). Freshwater assumed this was her creative side that she suppressed all day trying to express itself, so she didn't really question it.

Plus she just really enjoyed spending time with that Pearl she kept seeing in her dreams.

…..

Freshwater opened her eyes and put a hand to her forehead, frowning as she pushed herself to a sitting position. She was sitting on a beach of some kind, the sign above her reading "Welcome to Beach City".

"Freshwater? Freshwater is that you?"

Freshwater looked up in surprise when she saw a boy with a bright yellow star on a red shirt rushing towards her, arms outstretched. Instinctively, Freshwater summoned her weapon and lunged at him, pinning him to the ground. "Who are you?" she demanded almost boredly, staring down at he boy below her, cringing in disgust when she realized it was the human she had tried to fuse with in a previous dream.

The boy below her looked shocked, holding his arms up defensively. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Freshwater chill out, it's me! Steven?" Freshwater cocked an eyebrow. "Steven, huh? Funny name for a human." She muttered, looking the boy up and down before she stood, deeming him a nonthreat. "Man, I need to stop eating. Gives me weird dreams." She muttered, starting to make her way over to the water.

"When's this dream supposed to end?" Freshwater muttered after a few seconds of silence.

"When one of us wakes up." The boy responded, looking up at her, confused. "Why do you…look like that?" he asked, blushing at the way he worded his question. "I mean not that you look bad. It's just…different." He said, looking up and down. The gem he was looking at looked _nothing _like Freshwater did. Her blue skin was replaced with a brilliant white, and her hair was now a dark pink that flowed behind her back. Her eyes were also a bright blue rather than the signature navy blue. She also wore a frilly green shirt and a pretty camouflage pattern skirt with bright blues, yellows, pinks, and splotches of white.

"I'm not sure what you're referring to." Freshwater muttered, picking up a handful of sand. "I've always looked like this." Steven shook his head. "No, you haven't. You used to have light blue skin, a Mohawk pink hairstyle, and you _hated _wearing frilly things." He argued.

Freshwater looked down at the boy before she laughed loudly. "Man that's _rich._" She said, shaking her head when she had finished, chuckling. "Let me get one thing straight with ya, kid." She said, turning her head and fixing him with a cold stare. "The colors you just described to me sound like they clashed horribly. What are you going to tell me next, that you think I'm defective?"

Steven bit his lower lip. "Well, _I _didn't think that, but the Diamonds di-"

Freshwater's eyes flashed. "I am _not _defective." She snarled, pointing her weapon at him. "Look, I don't know who you are or why my brain keeps coming up with these….dumb dreams or whatever, but this is a garbage. Whatever fear I have that manifested into you is completely irrational. I'm perfect. I've always _been _perfect, and I will always _be _perfect. Understand?"


	3. Unlike Any Other Pearl

Jet pressed the stop button on her alarm clock before it could even start and looked over at B9 to ensure that the gem was still asleep. When she felt it was safe, the gem climbed out of the small cot that was tucked in the corner of the barn and made her way outside, tiptoeing out and closing the door behind her, not letting out a sigh of relief until she heard the door lock. ]

"What are you doing?"

Jet yelped and jumped, skyward. "Geeze Lapis, you almost gave me a heart attack." She whisper yelled to the gem sitting on the roof. Lapis snorted as she flew down, landing at the gem's side. "Sorry." A pause. "Where are you headed that has you sneaking off so early anyway?"

Jet hesitated for a moment before she spoke. "To go see Johnathon at his first guitar lesson. He's picked up a real knack for it, but he's a little nervous around new people." Lapis nodded. "Mr. Universe is pretty chill. You need a ride?" she asked, her eyes lighting up mischieviously. Jet cocked her head to the side. "Wait, what do you – woah!" the gem gasped as she was swept off of her feet and the gem holding her leapt into the air, sprouting water wings and taking flight.

Jet clung on for dear life to Lapis's arm as the gem flew to the Beach before dropping her unceremoniously into the water, laughing when she came out drenched head to foot. "Sorry, you slipped out of my grasp." She said, biting back laughter. Jet rolled her eyes as she walked out of the water. "Sure you did." She muttered, shaking herself off but unable to keep a smile from coming to her face. She wasn't sure why, but she was rather fond of Lapis Lazuli. The gem had a deadpan voice, but her sense of humor was golden and never failed to catch her off guard.

"Just so you know I have to get you back for that." Jet said, beginning to walk in the direction of the Car Wash. Lapis snorted, following her. "I'd like to see you try." She muttered, sitting on the curb and looking up at the sky. "So, when do Johnathon's lessons start?" she asked curiously. Jet shrugged. "Not for a few more hours. I just…." Her voice trailed off and she bit her lower lip.

"Wanted to get away from B9?"

Jet felt her face light up in embarrassment. "Don't say it like that." She said, crossing her arms. Lapis shrugged. "What? It's true." She muttered. Pause. "How did you know?" Jet asked, looking up at the gem. Lapis shrugged. "I can tell how uncomfortable you are around her. You're always on your guard, but when you aren't around her you're really laid back." She explained, putting her arms behind her head and leaning back, staring up at the steadily rising sun.

Jet nodded. "Y-Yeah, actually." Pause. "I guess she does make me really uncomfortable. We used to be close, but things….changed." she said, looking away. "The reason I don't like being around isn't even just because of her." She admitted, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "I mean, part of it is, but it's also the fact that I don't like who I am when I'm around her. I do….bad things when we're together. Or at least I contemplated doing bad things."

"I don't even know why I'm telling you this." Jet said, shaking her head with a small laugh. "You probably don't under-" Lapis chuckled, catching Jet off guard. "Oh, trust me, I understand." She said, closing her eyes as a dark shadow passed over her face. "I understand perfectly." She muttered.

When Lapis didn't elaborate, Jet figured the conversation had been ended and the two lapsed into comfortable silence. Though she didn't understand what Lapis had been through, she got the sense that she could trust and/or talk to this gem about her troubles. It was nice to be able to do this and not be scolded at for being "too emotional", as B had done the few times she had been vulnerable with her.

…

B9 scowled as she looked over what few notes about the cluster she had. She knew it was buried in Earth, but why hadn't it emerged yet? They couldn' stay on this useless hunk of rock for very long if nothing had been done to-

"Oh, hey are those reports on the Cluster?" B9 yelped and fell off the barn couch, her notebook bouncing harmlessly a few feet away. "Oh, I'm sorry." Peridot said, blushing and biting back a laugh as she scooped up the notebook and handed it to B9. "I didn't mean to scare you. Anyway, you don't need to worry about that thing." She boasted, a broad grin spreading over her face as she thumped lightly on her chest. "I can assure you that myself, and Steven, have taken care of that problem." The gem explained, bowing her head and beaming.

B9 arched a skeptical eyebrow. She had never been fond of the Peridot, but out of everyone she seemed to be the most intelligent of the group. "Oh? Do tell how you managed to destroy a residing incubating weapon at the center of the Earth's core." She said, taking the book and flipping through her notes. "Having worked on that cursed thing, I made it almost impossible to destroy."

Peridot snickered. "We bubbled it. Or rather, _Steven _bubbled it. He is rather talented, just like his mother." She said. "Anyhow, I went to check up on your little Cluster mission while I served under Homeworld, and I must admit that it is an impressive weapon. Absolutely horrific in construction, but it would have gotten the job done had we not stopped it."

B9 pursed her lips, looking down at her notes again. She'd never considered the possibility of the gems being able to bubble something that big, and she held a begrudging respect for it. "So. The Steven bubbled the Cluster? Is he not a human child?" she asked, confused. Peridot hesitated. She didn't know? Well, if nobody had told her, then maybe there was a reason.

"Well, I helped him. It was his idea." Peridot explained, shrugging. "I give credit where credit is due!" she said, forcing a smile when the Bismuth didn't look convinced.

"Anywho," Perido said, eager to move this conversation along, "Why're you looking at reports of the Cluster?"

The Bismuth sneered. "Why do you care?"

Peridot flinched at the sudden change in the gem's tone. "Well…..that is what friends are supposed to do?"

B9 pursed her lips, cocking her head to the side. "So, you used to work on the Cluster?" she asked. "Why didn't I run into you? I was the main gem that was over that thing." Peridot shrugged. "Well, like I said, I was only sent to check on the status of the thing, not to actually work on it or anything." she said, rubbing her neck awkwardly. "There were also some….complications. Specifically the Crystal Gems." Her eyes lit up. "But the good thing iss, they shouldn't be in much pain anymore."

"So they're just sitting there. Under the Earth's crust." B9 said,, looking below her feet and pursing her lips. Peridot nodded. "You know that bubble isn't going to last forever, don't you?" the gem said, arching an eyebrow. "Either the Diamonds will come to activate it, or that bubble's going to pop. I suggest you find a way off this planet while you can." The gem muttered, standing.

Peridot blushed and shook her head. "I….actually kind of like it here." She admitted, smiling sheepishly. "I can never return to Homeworld, but at least I have people here who I can count on. And…you can too if you open up."

B9 tensed up for a minute but shook her head. "I'm not getting attatched to you or anyone on this cruddy planet." She muttered, summoning a toolbox from her gem and walking off.

….

"Steven! Steven!"

Steven groaned and his eyes shot open, jumping when he saw Peridot mere inches from his face. "Oh, morning Amethyst." He said, giving her an awkward wave. Peridot grinned. "Hey Steven! You've gotta check out-" the purple gem frowned when she got a good look at the boy's face. "Whoa dude. You look awful." Steven rolled his eyes. "Morning to you too." He muttered, climbing out of the bed. "What's the matter, Ste-man? You not been sleeping well?" Amethyst asked, following him to the kitchen and sitting on one of the stools at the table.

"I was. Until last night that is." Steven said as he opened the refrigerator door and stuck his head in, grabbing a bottle of milk. "I had a dream about Freshwater. But like…..it was really weird. I honestly think it was just a regular old dream." Amethyst nodded, stroking her chin as Steven put the milk down with a sigh. "Like…..she didn't even _look _like Freshwater. But she was in our usual meeting spot, and she answered to the name I called her."

"Maybe it's just your head trying to cope with all the wack junk that's been going on lately." Amethyst said, her eyes lighting up. "Dude, you should take a break! We don't even have to go anywhere. Just hang around the house all day!" Steven hesitated. "I dunno…I really want to check on Pearl, too." He said, his eyes lingering on the temple door.

Amethyst frowned. "Look dude." She said, putting her hands on Steven's shoulders. "Pearl's in a bit of a funk right now, but she'll be alright. She just needs some time to take care of herself, and before you know it, things will be back to normal!" she said, ruffling his hair. "So whattya say?" she said, grabbing a bag of Chaaps from the cabinet.

Steven hesitated again but shook his head, looking at the purple gem with a small smile. "That….actually sounds like a good idea." He laughed, fixing his hair and letting out a whoop of surprise as Amethyst picked him up and hurled him onto the couch. "Good!" the gem said, grinning at him with a thumbs up. "You go get the others, and I'll make breakfast."

Steven rolled his eyes but gave her a small smile. "Make the breakfast _edible, _Amethyst." He said, shaking his head as he exited the temple.

…

Freshwater knocked loudly on the door of the elite's place of residence before stepping back and waiting, tapping her foot impatiently. After a few moments, the door slid open and a gem with bright yellow hair, a red uniform, orange cape, and white gloves sepped out, looking down at Freshwater as the gem on her eye glinted in the sunlight.

"Hessonite." Freshwater said, nodding at the gem as she stepped inside and looked around. Despite the fact that her reports said this gem was an elite, her place of residence was….lackluster to say the least.

Hessonite scowled. "You are the Pearl I am supposed to be teaching, I presume?" she asked. Freshwater snickered. "Teaching? Oh, Diamond's Name no." she said, shaking her head. "You are one of the gems that have been enlisted to accompany me down below. Aparently there are some Off-Colors who think they can hide from My Diamonds."

Hessonite arched an eyebrow. "And….they're sending a Pearl to do this." She said, frowning. Freshwater's eyes flashed as she turned to Hessonite, looking her in the eye. "You dare disrespect my Diamond's wishes?" she said lowly. Hessonite raised her hands defensively, paling slightly. "No, no, not at all. It just….caught me by surprise." She said, frowning.

The Pearl in question snickered. "Yes, I get that a lot. Pearls are dumb, the lowest of the low, only above the Off-Colors. Well, things are about to change in that regard, my dear Hessonite." She said with a small smirk before turning serious. "Now, if you're done messing around, let's go hunt us some Off-Colors."

…

"And….you're sure this will work." Yellow Diamond said, stroking her chin as she stared down at her screen. "I really don't even see how this is a Pearl anymore." Blue Diamond said hesitantly, looking over the tasks White had assigned to their new Pearl.

White Diamond nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Yes, that is the beauty of it all." She said, a twinkle in her eye. "By having a gem that can follow any order, this gem is capable of far more than even I foresaw."

"It's just so peculiar." Blue Diamond said, stroking her chin. "Seeing a Pearl take charge like a Bismuth, yet strike fear into the hearts of many like an Agate."

"And her loyalty is impeccable. Almost to the point of imperfection previously." Yellow Diamond agreed. White smiled. "Precisely. I'd say that as soon as we finish wrapping things up on Homeworld, we'll be able to move on the Cluster and destroy these Crystal Gems. With the help of our Pearl, of course."


	4. My New Apprentice

Three….two….one! Ready or not, here I come!"

Steven snickered and took a deep breath before leaping into Lion's Mane. Not only was his Not-So-Ferocious-Beast an absolutely _adorable _storage container, but he made for an excellent hiding place as well.

Honestly, he was surprised nobody had found him out by now. It was really quite simple, as all he had to do was stay close enough so he could stick his head out for air if necessary before ducking his head back in. He had recently been trying a game of seeing how long he could hang in there, and his current record was a minute and a half.

Growing slightly bored, Steven swam his way over to the small island where the Mr. Universe T-Shirt blew in the wind. Looking to the side, he also noticed – a bubbled gem? What was that doing he-

Steven's eyes widened as he ran back to the pink sea of hair and jumped out, gasping for air.

"Aw man, that's cheating! If I would've known you could hide in a cat, I would have tried." H11 said, crossing her arms. "You must admit, it was a rather smart choice of hiding. Your pet is very good, Steven." H10 said, stroking Lion's mane happily.

Steven laughed awkwardly and pushed himself to a sitting position. "Sorry guys." He said sheepishly. "I need to go show something to the gems." He said, climbing on Lion's back and trying to get the lazy cat on his feet. "Why can't we ever play with Steven and his other gem friends?" Johnathon whined as Steven was riding off. "Well…..because the Crystal Gems aren't really playing." Jet explained. "They're working." She said with a small smile, waving at Steven as he left.

"And it was…in Lion? Not in Rose's room?" Amethyst asked, looking at the bubbled gem in Steven's hands. Luckily, Pearl had been out of her room when Steven had come home, preparing tea at Amethyst's request in a desperate attempt to get the gem out of her funk.

"Yeah, it was in Lion." Steven said, holding up the bubble. "I don't know why it wasn't in the Temple." He said, looking up at Garnet for some sort of explanation. The usually stoic and calm fusion, however, looked shocked as she and Pearl stood in stunned silence. "Should we unbubble it, or just put it with the others? Ooh, maybe I can try to heal this one!" he said excitedly, starting to put the bubble down.

"I don't even think it's corrupted, dude." Amethyst said, grabbing his shoulder before the bubble could hit the ground and pop. "I mean, look at it. I've never seen a gem like that, but it doesn't have those gross splotches on it." Steven hesitated. "Yeah, that's true." He looked up at Garnet and Pearl. For a moment, the gems exchanged a look, appearing to have agreed on something as they looked back at Steven, summoning their weapons jus in case.

"Unbubble it."

Amethyst summoned her whip as well, watching carefully as Steven put the bubble on the ground and it popped.

Almost immediately, the gem inside started to reform, taking the form of a large gem with purple skin, brightly rainbow colored hair, and a bold black star tattooed on her left arm. She was wearing burgundy colored pants with a red star as a sort of makeshift belt.

Steven and Amethyst exchanged a look of confusion as the gem picked herself up off her feet. "I…I'm back?" she said, looking up , her eyes widening when she saw the fusion and the Pearl. "Garnet…Pearl?" she said in disbelief.

Immediately, Pearl's whole demeanor changed as she happily threw herself at the gem in question, wrapping her arms around her and laughing happily, being caught almost instinctively by the newcomer. "Whoa, hey, the Pearl _I _know _never _jumps into my arms!" the gem said with a wide smile, holding the gem bridal smile with a big grin. "Hey, did somebody lose a Pearl? Who do you belong to?" The gem said teasingly. Pearl scoffed but laughed. "Nobody!"

"Hey you clods, do you have a-" B9 stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the commotion going on in the living room, but nobody seemed to have noticed her yet. "Where have you been? We thought you'd been captured. Or worse - shattered." Pearl was saying, her hand coming to her mouth.

Bismuth snickered. "Shatter me? Pssh, Homeworld couldn't lay a scratch on this gem. Being rough and tough is in our nature." She said, turning around and picking up the couch as if it were nothing.

"Ahem."

The gem paused, looking down at Amethyst, Steven, and B9. "Who is this?" Amethyst asked, looking up at the gem, confused.

"You're Bismuth!" B9 said, pointing to the gem in disbelief. "Bismuth facet-6w7f cut 828, right?" Everyone looked down at the shorter gem, surprised by her outburst. S/hen she realized she had made things awkward, however, the gem's face darkened noticeably. "I…I'm sorry. I suppose just because you're a Bismuth on Earth, it doesn't mean you're who I thought you we-"

"No, that's me." Bismuth said with a smile. "I was just caught off guard that you know about me." She admitted, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "You know we could always use more Bismuth for the Crystal Gems." She said with a smile.

B9 stiffened at that and bit her lower lip. "Yeah….." she said awkwardly, looking behind her. "I have to go." She said, bending and grabbing her toolbox before rushing back outside.

"What was that?" Bismuth asked, looking at the others, who only shrugged.

"Anyway….what's been up since I've been gone?" Bismuth asked, sitting on the couch.

…

"Bismuth! _The _Bismuth!" B9 said, pacing back and forth in front of her barnmates.

"What's so big about her?" Peridot asked, watching as the gem paced back and forth. Jet shrugged, grabbing a baseball and beginning a game of wall-ball. "I dunno." She said simply.

B9 rolled her eyes. "She's all anyone in my Kindergarten ever _talked _about," she explained, projecting figures of glorious buildings on Homeworld that Bismuth herself had worked on. "She helped built tons of spires and temples for only the most elite gems! I studied her work." She boasted, staring wistfully at the architecture.

"Don't you _miss _it, sometimes?" B9 said, pursing her lips and watching as Jet caught the ball in one hand and tossed it back at the wall. "Eh, sometimes? Honestly, I was never really into working." She admitted. "I think I'm still in shock to be honest. Like…it doesn't feel real." She said, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she caught the ball again.

B9 pursed her lips but didn't respond. "So…you're staying here?" she said, scowling. Jet shrugged. "Dunno." She answered again. "I don't know enough about Earth to just go wandering on my own yet. It also depends on what conditions are right for Johnathon and the other humans. Greg shouldn't have to babysit them all the time. We saved them, so we have to protect them now." She said with a shrug, tossing the ball from one hand to the other before looking up at the gem.

Peridot and Lapis exchanged a look before joining the two outside. "You…really don't miss Homeworld?" Lapis said, looking up at the sky. Jet shrugged again. "Lately, I've learned that Homeworld isn't about where you are," she said, watching as Johnathon chased D13 throughout the corn fields. "But who you're with." She explained with a small smile.

…

"That Freshwater sounds like some character." Bismuth said, letting out a low whistle as she and the main four materialized on a Warp Pad overlooking a dark, gloomy area. Pearl nodded sadly. "She really was." She said as the gems began to walk to the Forge.

"I'd love to meet her some day. She seems like she has quite an attitude to her." The others frowned. "I…don't think that will be possible." Pearl admitted. "Last we heard of her, she's changed, and not for the better." She said, worry apparent in her voice. Bismuth looked down at Pearl, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder as the other gems continued to walk ahead. "Pearl. Look at me." Pearl did as she was told, meeting eyes with the Bismuth guard.

"I never had the displeasure of meeting White Diamond, but from what it sounds like, they _need _her for something. It sounds to me like they can't afford to throw away gems due to a lack of resources. That being said." She squeezed Pearl's shoulder and looked the gem in the eyes.

"The likelihood of Freshwater shattered is probably lower than you think."

"Bismuth! Bismuth, is this the forge?" Bismuth rolled her eyes with a small smile when she heard Steven's voice from a few feet away. "What I'm saying is. Have faith, okay?" she said, giving Pearl's shoulder a final squeeze before making her way to the door.

"I don't know why you left the door open." Garnet said, looking over her shoulder as they walked around the dark area. Bismuth frowned. "I didn't. I always make sure to lock up before I leave this place." she said, looking at the other gems. "I don't even know how you would get in here without another Bismuth around."

For a moment the gems exchanged glances, Garnet putting a finger to her lips and making her way over to a grey containment unit and grabbing a very familiar gem by the shirt collar and pulling her out.

"Hey! Let me go, you-" B9 cut her insult short when she saw the Bismuth guard towering above her. "I…sorry!" she said, standing and trying to scamper off. Before she could, though, Bismuth grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and raised her to eye level. "How'd you even find this place?" she asked, sounding more curious than angry. B9 bit her lower lip. "I've been…..looking around." She said awkwardly, fidgeting with her hands. "See….you're considered one of the elites on Homeworld. Even _after _you left Homeworld, gems were instructed to bring you back alive if they could. They considered your work phenominal." She explained, blushing. "And….so do I. You're my favorite architect." She said, looking down awkwardly.

For a moment, all was still until the sounds of Bismuth's laughter bounced across the walls of the forge. "That explains why you were acting all weird when you first saw me, huh?" she said, dropping B9 to the ground. B9 shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Yeah…I always dreamed of meeting you, and I actually found this forge a few weeks back. I didn't know it was yours, I'ms sorry!" she said, her face getting redder and redder as she spoke.

Bismuth chuckled, clapping the gem on the back and almost sending her to her knees. "Don't worry about it, small fry. I'm always down to help a fellow architect. Hey, have you tried the lava yet? It's really nice on the gem."

Garnet nodded. "Bismuth and I used to have competitions to see which of us could sit in the lava in the Crystal Heart. I never won, but it was impressive." She said, playfully punching the gem in the arm. Bismuth snickered. "Yeah, I love me some lava. Here, you gotta try it." She said, picking the gem up and putting her down on a large marked black square. B9 looked around hesitantly before looking up. "Bismuth….I don't know about thi-"

"Don't worry about it, Pearl. Bismuths _love _this stuff." Bismuth said, bringing her fist down hard on a small statue. Bismuth opened her mouth to object at the last second, but immediately fell silent when the molten lava hit her skin. "Ohh….that _does _feel nice." She said, standing under it and lowering her head, enjoying the way the lava ran down her skin. "I haven't felt this relaxed in _ages_" she admitted, looking over at Bismuth. "Hey there tiny, leave some room for me too." Bismuth said, joining her fellow Bismuth under the raining of molten lava.

"You feel free to use this place any time ya need, got it?" she said, smiling down at B9. B9's eyes lit up. "R-Really?" she said as they stepped out of the lava-bath. Bismuth nodded. "Well, of course. Us Bismuths gotta stick together, right? She said, winking at the gem.

B9 hesitated. "I…I dunno. I don't even know how I feel about being a Crystal Gem yet." She admitted. For a moment, silence filled the room. "Hey. It's okay to not know. You may have a lot of experience, but you aren't that old. I'd say what 3, 4 thousand years?" B9 nodded. "You don't gotta be a Crystal Gem if you don't want to be. Just don't rat us out to the Diamonds, and we're a-okay, got it?" B9 looked up at Bismuth, starry eyed. "Y-Yeah. Got it."

Bismuth grinned, turning to the others. "Alright, so we're trying to make some weapons for these gems here." She said, gesturing to Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven. "What additions do you think would work best for these gems, my new apprentice?"

B9's jaw dropped. "A…Apprentice?" Bismuth nodded. "Yeah, why not? I'm not gonna be around forever, and I don't need this place going to waist, now do I?" she said, flashing the gem a bright smile.

"Now, who's first?"

…

B9 let out a happy whistle as she stood under the molten lava. To be an apprentice under _The _Bismuth. Rumor had it that even though she was the first of her kind, she was the best. Crystal Gem or not, she could learn a lot from this gem. Speaking of which….How did she feel about the Crystal Gems?

B9 mulled it over as she shook herself off and made her way out of the forge, the sky darkening quickly above her. When you threw aside all of Homeworld's roles, the gem were fine, but…..they were different. Not Off-Color or defective, as they could follow the roles if they wanted to. They just _chose _not to. B9 still wasn't sure how she felt about anyone besides Freshwater, who she begrudgingly respected for getting them to somewhere safe, unless ou forgot about the huge weapon baking at the Earth's core.

Eh it was too late to talk emotions. The gem thought to herself, stifling a yawn as she came up to the barn she and Jet were now sharing with Peridot and Lapis. Right now she needed some sle-

"Why are you getting back so late?"

B9 jumped at the sound of Jet's voice on the side of the barn. Rolling her eyes, B9 yawned and stretched. "I was working. And while we're playing 20 questions," she said, locking eyes with the gem. "Why didn't you tell me Steven was Rose Quartz's mom?"

Jet froze, turning to face B9. "I….I know how you felt about Rose, so I-"

"Steven isn't Rose." B9 said simply, shrugging. "There's no reason for me to hate him."

"Oh…..Sorry." An awkward pause. "You thought I was going to do something to hurt him. Didn't you." B9 said, her eyes flashing for a moment before dying down again.

Jet bit her lower lip. "Y….Yeah, actually." She admitted, raising her head. You're just…not the best gem when you're angry." B9 bit her lower lip and looked down for a second. "What, is this about the whole Freshwater thing?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. The Onyx fell silent but nodded.

"I….don't like how I act when I'm around you. We used to be so close." Jet said, wrapping her arms around herself. "And now you treat me like I'm nothing – no, worse than nothing. It's…frustrating." She said, shaking slightly as tears welled in her eyes. "It's like even though you're my mentor I'm having to be the mature one, because you're still dealing with the guilt of what happened to Bu-"

"Don't say her name." Jet snapped, looking down at the Earth as if their voices enough were enough to pop the bubble surrounding the cluster. "I've accepted the role I had to play in our leader's downfall. That's why I'm trying to keep you from turning out like her."

"Why would I _not _want to turn out like Buck, B9?" Jet whispered. Silence. "I loved Buck. You loved her too. We _all _did. Rose may have done things we hate, but you saw the positive change she made on Buck. She smiled a lot. She laughed a lot. I wasn't there for the times before Rose, but from what I heard, she used to be strict and no-nonsense. But in the last years of her life she was –"

"Weak? Spineless? Unable to control her crew?" B9 suggested, refusing to drop her anger.

Jet shook her head. "No. She was _happy,_ Buck. Sure her final moments suck, and they probably suck now, but the things she did while she was with us made her happy. And to me that's all that should matter." She said, wiping a tear from her eye. "You can't keep letting her death tear you up like this, B9. It's not good for you." She whispered.

B9 raised her head for a moment, letting the Onyx's words sink in before she shook her head. "I'm going back to the forge." She muttered, picking her toolbox back up and making her way away from the barn.

Jet reached out an arm to stop her, but paused, falling back. She had spoken her mind about Buck, and that felt like a positive move in their friendship, something she thought she would never be able to do. Leaning back and putting her hands behind her head, the gem sighed.

This was going to take time for both of them.


	5. Soft

Pearl stared up at the place she knew Homeworld was. Where she knew _Freshwater _was. While there was plenty to distract her throughout the day such as Bismuth being unbubbled, the small dispute that seemed to be going on between B9 and Jet, and even simply taking care of the humans, she still found her mind wandering to the gem who had taken White's attack for her. The pale gem prayed that White hadn't recognized her, but she honestly couldn't have been sure. Pearls were plentiful and replaceable on Homeworld, and it was possible that by this point all Pearls were the same.

Or, at least, that's what Pearl told herself to keep the creeping terror at bay.

The Pearl found her mind wandering back to what Bismuth had said in the forge. Maybe the gem had been right? Maybe Freshwater was still alive up there? Pearl sighed, hanging her head. She wasn't sure whether she preferred the Pearl fighting for her freedom or relenting to the reign of the Diamonds.

As much as Pearl wanted to think freshwater would try to fight back, she couldn't help thinking of how the gem had betrayed them. Granted, she wasn't necessarily angry about it anymore, but it still stung. She honestly couldn't really blame Freshwater for the little stunt she'd pulled so long ago. After all, she was like Lapis Lazui in the sheer desperation she had to get to Homeworld and serve under the Authority. As she had come to the conclusion long ago, this Pearl _was _perfect. Perfect to a fault, in fact. And now that she was probably fighting with White Diamond – although it be against her will – she knew they were all in deep trouble.

Pearl sighed, allowing her back to slouch. "Freshwater….you _idiot." _She whispered, putting her head in her hands and feeling the familiar sadness night-time brought sweep over her again as she made her way inside. Garnet sat on the couch and watched her, silent as ever. For a moment, the gems held each other's gaze before Garnet slid over, patting the spot next to her. Pearl started to step towards her, but shook her head before rushing to the solitude of her own room.

She needed time. She needed _space. _She needed to grieve. And right now, the sanctitude of her room was where she achieved all of these things.

…

"So, let me get this straight, these hunks of junk are supposed to scan for Off-Colored gems?" Freshwater said, using her foot to shift one of the objects on its back. Dead. Hessonite nodded. "Yes. According to Emerald, one of the many Peridots under her command made it." Freshwater rolled her eyes at the hint of jealousy in the gem's voice. What was the point in having a lot of gems if you could barely get them to bend at your will?

"So, are we guarding you or are you leading us?" Hesssonite asked sarcastically, coming to stand at Freshwater's shoulder and look down at the cracked and dead machine. Freshwater snorted. "Yes." She said simply, getting down on her hands and knees to closely inspect the thing. "So, what's wrong with it?" she asked, knocking on it lightly. It wasn't cracked or broken. Just inactive. Hessonite shrugged. "I suppose there just aren't any- Watch out!"

The elite quickly rushed forward and scooped Freshwater into her arms as the machine began to whir for a moment before rising into the sky shakily. "Stay here." Hessonite muttered, putting the gem down and summoning her weapon.

Freshwater did as she was told, watching as the gem leapt into the air and swung her weapon full force at the thing, watching as it soared into one of the many pillars in the Kindergarten, crashing to the ground. Hessonite paused, her weapon still at the ready. After a few moments silence, she lowered it. "That was….odd." she muttered, pulling up her reports with her gems and quickly scanning it with her eyes. "Says here this these things only lock on Off-Colors." She muttered, putting the reports back down and glancing down at Freshwater.

"You aren't…." The Hessonite started to ask, but flash of red hot anger on Freshwater's face made the gem immediately re-consider this question. "No, of course you're not. Not a gem serving the Diamonds." She muttered, following Freshwater deeper into the Kindergarten. "Exactly." Freshwater said coldly. "Me. Defective." She shook her head. "Man what next, fusion with humans?" she felt a shudder run down her back at the memory of her dreams. "Don't humor me."

…..

"Hey, H11, do ya think we could start a band or something?" Johnathon asked curiously, strumming one of the small child sized guitars Greg had been letting him use. "H11 snickered. "I dunno, maybe? What's even the point of going to a band?" the girl asked, stretching and glancing at Johnathon curiously. "Well, I dunno. Just for fun I guess. Mr. Universe says we should try it out. He says lessons will be free for us since we're kids."

"I dunno if D13 wants to play the guitar." H11 said with a small frown. D13 shook his head with a small shrug. "Oh, no that's okay!" Johnathon said. "Mr. Universe says he can hook us up with different people and instructors." H11 cocked her head to the side. "What about that green stuff?"

Johnathon's brow furrowed. "Green stuff? What green stuff?"

"You know." H11 said, slightly frustrated. "That green paper stuff. The stuff Mr. Universe gets when he finishes a car wash? The stuff he is talking about giving Y6 and J10 some of so we can get our own place here in Beach City."

Johnathon's eyes widened. "Oh, Earth currency!" H11 nodded. Johnathon shrugged. "Mr. Universe says he has plenty of that. He says he's just having Y6 and J10 work for him so they can learn how to make money and not just spend it all." The boy's tongue stuck out of his mouth as he strummed a note on the guitar, grinning to himself. "Finally. That fingering has been giving me all kinds of trouble to learn." He muttered to himself, not daring to move his hands lest he forget how to strum it again.

H11 and D13 exchanged a look. "Well, what other instruments are there?" she asked curiously. Johnathon reluctantly put the guitar down and picked up a book on the shelf. "Tons." He said, picking it up and motioning for D13 and H11 to follow him. "First, though, let us use some of our Earth currency and get food. Steven says there's a ncie place here called the Big Donut that is nice."

"How do you adjust so easily to this place?" H11 asked, looking around at all the hustle and bustle of Beach City. Johnathon shrugged. "I dunno? I've always been the one to just kind of go with the flo—"

The boy yelped when D13 yanked him back and away from the road as a bright yellow car rounded a corner and sped onto the street Johnathon was about to walk onto.

There was a loud screech, and the small trio of kids covered their faces as there was a loud bang followed by dead silence. Johnathon was the first one to open is eyes, his heart dropping when he saw a boy with tanned skin climbing out of a destroyed…what was that? It was a big yellow machine that had wrapped itself around a pole, and the pole appeared undamaged. The human that had been inside, however, did _not _look pleased as he stormed over towards the kids, brushing his jet black hair out of his eyes and fixing them with a sneer.

"What the _hell _did you do to my car?! Do you have any idea how expensive that thing is you little brat?"

Johnathon stood, shocked, looking at H11 and D13, who looked just as shocked as he was. "Your…car?" H11 said, cocking his head to the side, confused. The taler human groaned and put his face in his hands. "Yes, you idiots, my _car_. What are you, from off planet or something?" he snapped. The kids exchanged a look and nodded. "Yes, actually." Johnathon said. This response only seemed to have fueled Kevin's anger as he opened his mouth to light into the kids. Before he could, though, the door to the Big Donut swung open and a girl with bleach blonde hair and a purple shirt with the Big Donut Logo on it charged out with a broom, Lars following behind her, looking like he'd just woken up.

"Hey! Leave the kids alone!" She snapped,

"Leave the _kids _alone? Sadie, did you see what those little gremlins did to my car? My parents are gonna _kill _me for this!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't have come speeding down here like some sort of _maniac,_ they would have seen you coming."

D13, H11, and Johnathon all look equally confused and uncomfortable as they watched Sadie and Kevin go back and forth for a few minutes before the teen sulked off to go call his parents.

"What's a car?" H11 whispered to D13, who shrugged.

"I don't know, but apparently it was very important to him." Johnathon whispered back.

H11's eyes widened. "We broke something that was important to someone? That makes me feel bad. Maybe we can make it up to him some-"

"Of _course _you brats are going to make it up to me." The boy snarled, making H11 and Johnathon jump. D13 flinched and sneered, but H11 put a hand on his shoulder, steadying him.

"No, they're not." Sadie said, stepping in front of the trio. "Their parents, maybe, but not them." Kevin looked up at the boy who had followed Sadie out, asking him to back him up. "Lars. C'mon man, back me up." He pleaded. Lars scoffed. "Don't look at me, dude. This doesn't have anything to do with me." He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small rectangle with a screen on it and starting to tap on it. "Good luck suing a bunch of kids, though." He said, shrugging and nodding at the trio.

Kevin scowled at Sadie, then at Lars, before sighing, exasperated, ad pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil. "What's your parents phone number?" he snapped. The kids exchanged a look awkwardly. "We don't exactly…..have parents?" H11 said awkwardly, shrugging. Kevin sighed and pinched his nose with one hand. "Great, so it's me against three orphans. Chicks don't freaking dig that, man." He muttered, appearing to talk moreso to himself than to anyone else.

"Why does he want the approval of small earth animals?" H11 asked.

D13 and Johnathon shrugged.

"Fine. I'll take care of this with Mayor Dewey, and he'll sort this mes out." Kevin muttered, scribbling something down before handing it to Sadie. "Here's my number. I'll be calling to sort this out soon, and I'll be back."

And with that, the boy, scowled at each of the kids before sauntering off, shoving his hands into his pockets and grumbling under his breath.

After Kevin had left, Sadie's tone softened. "Sorry about that." She said sheepishly. "Are you kids alright?" the kids nodded before Johnathon shook his head. "No. I'm hungry." He said, pulling his cap off and allowing his face and hair to be exposed to the sun. Lar's jaw dropped. "Yo, kid, what did you do to your hair" he blurted, both shocked and amused. Sadie shot him a death glare.

Johnathon frowned, cocking his head to the side. "I don't know what you mean?" he said, looking at himself. "This is how I've always looked?" he said, looking at H11 and D13, who looked equally as confused as he was. "Please excuse him." Sadie said, apologizing profusely. "It's just….we've never seen anyone with gyour type of…condition." She said, fumbling for words.

"Uh….Okay?" Johnathon said, still confused. He still didn't seem to have registered how having his skin complexion and hair was odd. Jet had scavenged through Amethyst's room for hats and other things he could use to cover himself up, but all of them were extremely uncomfortable at this time of the year, so he had just resided to staying as a recluse in Greg's van or on the shoreline. Now that this had happened, though, he wasn't so sure…

"Hey, Johnathon?" H11 asked, shaking him slightly. "You okay there, bud?" Sadie asked, still looking like she wanted to crawl into a hole and die, throwing dirty looks at Lars every second she could. "Y-Yeah." Johnathon said, shaking his thoughts and deciding to address them later. "Yeah, yeah I'm good." His eyes lit up immediately. "We were actually wondering if we could buy something from here for breakfast."

Sadie looked like a giant weight had been lifted off of her shoulders as she gave him a broad smile. "Yes, of course. You know what, never mind, it's on the house." She said, beaming and grabbing Lars by the ear, dragging him behind the counter.

"So, what do you guys want?" Sadie asked, ignoring Lars as he muttered something under his breath. Johnathon, H11, and D13 all exchanged a look. "We…don't know?" H11 admitted. "This isn't anything like the food we had in the zoo." She said, glancing at Johnathon. Sadie narrowed her eyes. "The zoo? What are you tal-"

"Hey Lars, hey Sadie!" The trio looked up as Steven came bustling in, looking brighter than usual, which was saying something. "Did you guys see what happened to Kevin's car?" Steven asked, whistling lowly. Sadie rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Morning, Steven. And yes, we did."

Steven sat at his usual spot, looking down at the trio. "You guys didn't have anything tod o with it did you? I wouldn't tell Garnet if you did." He said, shrugging. "Well….kinda?" H11 said, shrugging. "He almost hit them with his car." Lars said bluntly, bagging Steven's usual donut and putting it in front of him. Steven's jaw dropped. "He _what?!" _

"We're fine." H11 said with a small shrugged. "Was kinda scary, though. Sadie helped us out." She said, smiling gratefully at the older teen. Sadie flushed, embarrassed. "Aw, shucks, I was just doing my job." She said, shrugging. "Yeah, he's apparently going to talk to Mayor Dewey about damages. I don't think he'll do anything major, though, considering that they're kids."

Steven sighed. "Well, that's relieving, I guess." He said, reaching into his pocket and paying Lars. "Oh, speaking of which, what are you guys' names, anyway?" Sadie asked curiously.

"I'm H11, and this is my brother D13." H11 said, flinging her arm around her brother and smiling up at them. "I'm Johnathon." Johnathon said, waving at her and pressing his hands to the glass of donuts, peering inside. "Well, it's nice to meet you three." Sadie said. "What do the D and the H stand for, if you don't mind me asking?" she asked, getting up and going over to the grab a paper to take their orders.

The siblings exchanged a look. "What do you mean what does it stand for?" H11 asked, confused. "Wait, so you have letters and numbers in your actual name?" Lars asked, confused. The siblings shrugged. "I suppose so?" H11 said. "That's all anyone ever called us."

Awkward silence.

"Anyway." Sadie said, forcing a smile. "Steven's been to the Big Donut for as long as I've been working here. What do you recommend?"

Everyone seemed to pounce on the topic switch as Steven picked up the nearest menu and started going throug

….

Bismuth rolled her eyes from the ship's undercarriage, grasping onto the wrench she was using to tighten a loose bolt. She was in the process of preparing the ship for the long journey to pick up another new batch of humans, so they didn't have time for any of this…._nonsense._

"Buck, I don't know what Rose has been filling your little head with, but some of us actually have work to get done." B9 said, sensing her companion standing over her to try to distract her from her work.

"I know. I'm just…I/m worried about Jet." Buckstar admitted, crossing her arms and looking away, a hint of sadness in her voice. "She's been a little distant lately, and Skinny said she's concerned that whenever the humans get here we'll be too busy to spend time with her."

B9 bit her lower lip at that, grunting slightly. Unfortunately, her plan to completely ignore her small underling except for when she had been a lot easier said than done. She was just so eager to learn, and never shied away from even the dirtiest of jobs. Her ability to concentrate on one task until she figured it out was something that even she struggled to master. The gem was extremely intelligent and picked things up rather quickly. She was just inexperienced.

Frankly, B9 was a little jealous, as her underling had more skills than she had had at that age.

B9 pushed herself from under the ship and stood so that she and her commander could talk face to face. "Buck." She said, her voice rough but her gaze soft. "I won't let that happen. You know my gem's hard as a Diamond."

Buckstar's icy blue eyes lit up as she laughed. "Not for me and Jet it's not." She teased, giving her teammate a cocky sharp toothed smirk. B9 scoffed and looked away, blushing. She hadn't admitted it even to herself, but this was in fact true. She had been on her best behavior since her little missteps with the Diamonds from a young age, but Jet and B9 had, in fact, made her go soft. Honestly, B9 couldn't even determine _why _this had happened. Truth be told, she should have been tipped off to how odd her new commander truly was by the name alone.

Buckstar, or Buc as she preferred. What kind of name was that for an Agate? A _Fire _Agate, at that. In general, an Agate had the physical ability and authority to shatter pretty much whomever they chose, and B9 had heard that Fire Agates were the quickest to jump to this choice. After meeting Buck, however, the Bismuth wasn't so sure.

While the gem had rules, Buck only enforced the ones she thought had the potential of leading to a gem or human getting hurt. Punishments camein the form of stern talking tos, or light teasings. If a gem suffered for an act of stupidity, Buckstar would just shake her haead of fiery red curls and send the gem to the infirmary, eyes shining as if to say "I told you so."

"Aw, come on B9 I was only joking." Buckstar said, laughing and lightly shoving B9 as she picked up the wrench and turned to go back to her work. "It's true though." B9 muttered, hiding her face in her hands. "You two have made me go soft. IF the Diamonds find out about this, they-"

B9 fell silent as her partner took her trembling hands in hers, lowering them. "Babe. Look at me" She said, her voice soft, yet firm. B9 looked up, feeling herself calming down at the sight of her leader's natural blood red face and skin-complexion. "The Diamonds aren't going to find out. Anyway." She said, her gaze softening as she stroked B9's face. "You don't have to act like the big bad gem you front as all the time. I like you better when you're this way. Soft, easygoing. Happy. Understand?"

B9 nodded, closing her eyes and putting her hand on top of her leader's. Moments like these were few and far between for the two gems. They're two different gemstone – more importantly, they're two different _rankings._ A Bismuth and an Agate. That was about as ridiculous as a Ruby and a Pearl.

But…..that was how things were.

No matter how hard she had tried, the Agate's demeanor had changed her. Made her a lot more humble, tender even, despite the fact that the gem would never admit this.

"This brittle exterior you're keeping up is going to break one day, B9." The Agate said, pulling away and staring deeply into the gem's eyes. "And when it does, I hope that either Jet or myself will be there for you, because you can't keep up this facade forever." B9 nodded. "I know, Buck." She murmured.

"I know."

…

The clanging of hammer on tungsten echoed through the forge as B9 hammered away, tears streaming down her face. She shouldn't have been so hard on Jet then, and she shouldn't be hard on the young Onyx now. Like it or not, she _was _soft. And in her eyes, it was pathetic. Turing against the Diamonds and leaving a defenseless Pearl in her wake. Oh, nevermind the Pearl wasn't defenseless. The B9 actually owed her very life to her.

Growling, B9 hurled her hammer at the wall and fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands with a sob. After a few moments, she felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, the Bismuth wiped her face with her hands, laughing awkwardly when it left a streak of grime and rubble in its wake. "Uh…Hi." She said, coughing the feeling of her raspy voice in her chest as she cleared her throat and coughed.

"Stress building, huh?" Bismuth said, giving the gem a small, knowing smile. B9 looked away but nodded. Another moment's silence passed before the gem gasped when she was picked up from under her arms and hoisted into the air before coming to an awkward stop atop the Bismuth's shoulders. "While I love the idea of a good ol' fashioned stress building session," she said, picking up the small object B9 had been working on and handing it to her. "It's not the most healthy. Let's go take a soak in the pool of lava in Garnet's room. That always cheers me up."

_****Hey guys! Sorry this update took so long. I've been really sick, but I'm back and better than ever! I"ve actually created a blog for everything about Freshwater, Pearl, and anything about this fanfiction in general. You can find it on Tumblr titled FReshwater and Pearl Infodump Blog. I'll be posting when I've updated, as well as uploading fanart that I've drawn of not only Freshwater and Pearl, but other people that have joined in on this journey. I hope you'll join me there!****_


	6. Payback

Freshwater made her way deeper and deeper into the Kindergarten, ducking behind corners whenever she came across more of those cursed broken robots searching the place. Against her better judgement, she and Hessonite had decided to split up because for some reason the flying machines thought she was defective and wouldn't hesitate to lock onto her gem and attempt to shatter her.

After the latest flying object had passed her, Freshwater heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed before continuing on, squinting in the darkness. She found it really hard to imagine that this place had been alive at one point, and that all the gaping holes were once filled with gems about to spring forth and fulfill their purpose.

Freshwater sighed as she came to a halt in front of a large rock. Sitting on top of it, she put a hand to her visor, pressing the button that displayed a holographic displayal of her reports. The gem pursed her lips as she pulled up a map of the area. According to this, she had searched every nook and cranny of the place, but still. No Off-Colors.

Growling in frustration, the gem dissipated the hologram and stood, crossing her arms and contemplating her next plan of action. She should probably searhch for Hessonite right now. No doubt the Elite was looking for her.

"Oh! You have unfused!"

The gem froze when she heard the sound of muffled voices….below her? Looking at the rock quiczzically, the gem raised an eyebrow as another voice answered her, but the gem was unable to make out the words.

Stooping low, Freshwater shoved the rock away, surprised when she saw a large hole below it. Peering into it, she held her breath as the gems spoke.

"We don't like to." A Ruby guard was saying, her arms crossed across her chest bitterly. She was holding the hand of a Pearl, and the two gems were talking to – a fusion? No, not a fusion. It appeared to be two Rhutile gems fused together at the hip.

"But we _had_ to." The Pearl was saying, lightly running a hand through the gem's curly hair. "We saw a Hessonite guard up there, and I think she's looking for us. There's no way an eite gem would just be walking around up there!"

"I think she was chasing after another gem, actually." The Ruby guard said, leaning into the gem's touch. "We saw a Pearl duck out of the way of one of the killer robots up above, so she may be like us."

The Rhutile guard's eyes widened. "Oh, that's awful! We have to go bring her down immediately, then. Come, before it's too late." The gem said, raising her head fretfully, surprised when she locked eyes with a Pearl staring above her.

"Oh, is this the gem you were referring to?" Rhutile asked, her eyes lighting up as the other gems looked up as well.

"Oh, yes! Come down here, we swear it's safe."

Freshwater gawked at the gems below her, the Rhutile especially sending her into a state of shock. Two gems. Fused at the hip? They both talked separately, and appeared to even have their own personalities. But….they were joined at the hip?

"It's okay!" one of the heads said, giving her a smile. "Yeah, you aren't the only one who's wrong." The Pearl agreed, squeezing the Ruby's hand who nodded, the two gems fusing immediately and leaving a magenta fusion standing in their place, staring up at Freshwater with a bashful smile.

"See? We're all Off-Colors down here."

Freshwater put her hand to her chest. It was almost too much to bare. "There are…more of you?" Freshwater asked, cocking her head ot the side. The fusion nodded. "Oh, yes. Now come, before more of those robots come and cross you off the face of this Kindergarten."

Freshwater bit her lower lip. A quick attack wasn't going to work. The Off-Colors appeared to have banded together in some kind of make-shift crew, and probably wouldn't go down without a fight. Looking over her shoulder, Freshwater nodded before hopping down into the hole, stumbling when she barely managed to land on her feet.

"So. What's your name?" The fusion asked, backing up slightly and awkwardly running a hand through her curls.

"We're the Rhutile twins and this is Rhodinite." Freshwater nodded at the introduction. "I'm Freshwater." She said simply, looking above. This was no good. She'd have to give Hessonite an update on her current situation, but for now she had to stick with the Off-Colors.

"So? You said there were more of you?" she said, turning back to the two gems.

….

"Stop groaning so loudly." H11 said, laying on top of Lion's back and scratching the animal behind the ears.

"I can't help it." Johnathon said, sighing as he squinted at the sheet music in front of him. "I have to learn this rift, or it's going to kill me."

"Why don't you ask Steven? He's good at guitar, and he has his ukulele." The blonde said, closing her eyes. D13 nodded in agreement, sitting next to Johnathon on the blanket they had lay out on the beach. "They're out teaching the humans how to fish." Johnathon said bitterly, sighing as he put the instrument in his case. "Why are you so hellbent on figuring that thing out, anyway?" H11 asked.

Johnathon looked away, picking the case up and standing. "It's just…..i feel really bad about what we did to Kevin's car." He admitted, rubbing his neck sheepishly. The siblings exchanged a look and D13 snickered.

"D13's right." H11 said, nodding. "Jerk deserved it."

Johnathon cocked his head to the side. "How? He didn't provoke us."

D13 scoffed and rolled his eyes. "He yelled at us for like five minutes." H11 pointed out. "Yeah. _After _he saved our lives by wrecking his car." The siblings didn't look convinced. "Okay, but what does _that _have to do with you wanting to perfect that bass rift?" H11 asked, giggling as Lion arched his back, sending the kid toppling into the sand.

"Oh, yeah. See, Steven said he knows these kids around town who really like playing their insruments and were all thinking about forming a band. Bands can make Earth currency by performing, so I was thinking if we banded together and got really good, we would eventually have enough Earth currency to pay that guy back."

"You really think you know enough about guitar _now _to join a band?" H11 asked quizzically as she and her brother followed Johnathon into town. Johnathon shrugged. "Mr. Universe says I'm learning really fast. Plus, Steven says one of the kids we can talk to plays guitar, so I can learn more from him. Anyway, you're asking too many questions. You in or out?" he asked, turning to the two as he stopped outside of the Big Donut.

H11 and D13 exchanged a look before shrugging. "Eh, I don't see why not. I'm stuck on a planet that I know exactly nothing about. Might as well join a band." Johnathon grinned. "That's the spirit!" he said, pushing the door open ad heading inside. "One of you can probably learn to play the keyboard! It's really cool."

"I wanna sing. D13, do you wanna play keyboard, or whatever it is?" H11 asked, looking at her older brother. D13 shrugged. "Sounds like a yes to me." Johnathon said, putting his case down.

"What are you troublemakers talking about now?" Sadie asked, giving the trio a small smile and elbowing Lars awake. "We're gonna start a band!" H11 said excitedly. "Yeah." Johnathon agreed. "To raise money to help fix that guys car." He said, nodding.

Lars grumbled something under his breath as he stretched. "Yeah, well good luck with that." He muttered, stretching. "With a car _that _nice, you'll probably have to get at least one gig a day for the rest of the year. And I'm not talking opening for shows. I mean real live full hour-long performances."

Johnathon's face fell as Sadie nodded. "It's true. Kevin's car is really expensive, and like I told the jerk last week. You guys won't be paying for it. After all, you are just kids."

"I don't know why you're so worried about it, kid." Lars said, rolling his eyes. "Mr. Universe has already payed for the damages, and then some. Kevin's probably wished he would have almost wrecked _years_ ago."

"Oh, yeah. Mr. Universe is _loaded _thanks to that commercial he did forever ago." Sadie said, nodding and giving Johnathon a small smile. "It's still really nice of you to want to repay him, though."

H11 deflated. "So….no band." She said, looking up at Johnathon. "I don't see why we would need one now." Johnathon said, shrugging. Sadie arched an eyebrow. "For fun?" she suggested, dumbfounded. "Trust me, if I could drop my job at this place and perform in a band, I would." She said, staring out the window wistfully.

"So why don't you?" H11 asked, confused. Sadie snorted. "Because if I do then I'll be leaving this place in Lars's hands. And trust me. We don't want that."

"Hey!" Lars said, offended.

"Well, we better be going then." Johnathon said, picking u phis case. "Oh yeah, before I forget! Do you guys have any idea where I can find these people? We're looking for new band members." He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a folded sheet of paper, handing it to Sadie.

"Buck, Kiki, Sour Cream, and Jenny? Well, Kiki and Jenny work at Fish S-"

Sadie's explanation was cut off when Lars grabbed the paper from Sadie's hand, reading it in disbelief. "You can't talk to them." He said bluntly, sweating nervously as he clenched the paper in his hands. "And…why not?" Sadie asked, dumbfounded at Lars's reaction. "Becaiuse these are the coolest kids in Beach City, Sadie!" Lars said, holding the palper in one hand and gesturing to it with the other.

"According to you they are." Sadie said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, if that were the case, so what? I'm sure they wouldn't mind at least helping the newcomers of beach City." Lars groaned. "Sadie, they're a couple of kids. You really think they'll want to even be seen with them?"

Johnathon flinched at that. "Well, no harm in asking, is there?" H11 said, grabbing D13's hand and pulling him to the door. "Thanks, Sadie! Here's a tip, since we didn't buy anything!" Johnathon said, reaching into his pocket and quickly throwing a wad of cash onto the table before following the siblings out the door.

Sadie rolled her eyes as Lars groaned and slammed his head on the counter. "We really have to teach these kids to count cash." She said, picking up the wad of 20 dollar bills and putting them aside for when they came back for lunch, only leaving a single twenty dollar bill in the tip jar to be split between her and her shift partner at the end of the day.


	7. Pizza and Flyers

B9 watched wide eyed as she and Bismuth worked. Over the past couple of weeks, the two had become close, especially since the lava soak in the Crystal Heart. Whether the two gems were talking or working silently in the forge, B9 felt herself at ease. There was just something so nice about going from the role of teacher to the role of a student There weren't many "lessons" per se. Mostly Bismuth would watch B9 work and offer assistance here and there and give her pointers to improve her technique. The gem was currently working on her weapon, trying to find ways to make it better.

"You're really going to stay here with the Crystal Gems?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Bismuth nodded. "Of course I am. I'm happy here, and I was one of the original Crystal Gems, so I can't exactly leave." B9 frowned "And you don't ever miss HOmeworld?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. "No." Bismuth said flatly. "All that stuff I built. The things I did. They were impressive, that I'll admit, but I didn't enjoy doing them. I only completed them because I was ordered to. They didn't make me happy." She said with a shrug.

B9 frowned. "But you were the best. The best of the best." She protested. "I'm sure if you went back they would be easy on you, especially since Bismuths in general are really low in quantity _and _in quality." She said. "I had to teach myself everything I know, as there weren't any gems built to do the things I could do. They even resorted to using Onyxs. That's how I met Jet."

Bismuth chuckled. "Thanks B9. I appreciate the praise and find it humorous that Homeworld saw such potential." She said, shaking her head. "But I'm a lot happier here. I can build whatever I like and not have anyone tell me any different. Except for Rose, of course." The last sentence had a bit of an edge to it, and B9 could see a shadow briefly cross the gem's face before she shook it off and changed topics. "So. You taught the Onyx well from what your story in the zoo says."

B9 nodded. "Yeah. Honestly, she picked up quicker than I did." She said, chuckling. "Well, why don't you get her down here? I'd love to see what she can do." Bismuth said, glancing over her shoulder at the little work station she had set up for her shorter companion. B9 stiffened slightly. "We….aren't on the best of terms." She muttered. Bismuth raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" she asked, stopping her work to cross her arms and look down at the gem with a raised eyebrow B9 rarely ever took the time to open up, so Bismuth wanted the gem to know that she had her undivided attention.

"Why is that?"

B9 hesitated but relented. Even if Bismuth didn't have any advice, it wouldn't hurt to talk about the unaddressed tension between the two gems. "Buckstar." She muttered, not ceasing her work. "Or rather her death, I guess. It's messed with my head." She admitted. "It's messed with both of our heads, but I think Jet is handling it a lot better than I am. I'm just so angry all the time, and all that anger isn't going anywhere. It's just sitting there….festering. I've had to distance myself because the emotion is rare for both of us. WE just…..grew distant." She said sadly, looking up at Bismuth.

The lavender gem tsked and put a hand on B9's shoulder. "Grief does a lot of things to people. It's something that nobody ever prepares you for, and going through the process is never easy. It was a regular occurrence during the war, but was still an awful thing to go through. I'm sorry that you and Jet were torn apart from this," She said, giving the gem's shoulder a light squeeze. "but maybe that was for the best. I can tell that you still care about her, and she more than likely still cares about you. But there's nothing wrong with needing some time apart to deal with your own baggage."

"Thanks Bismuth." B9 said, putting her hand on the taller gem's arm and squeezing it lightly in response. "For?" Bismuth asked, confusion etched in her features as she raised an eyebrow, confused. "For listening." B9 said seriously, giving the gem a small smile.

….

"How many times do I have to tell you kids? No cats in the store!"

"Sorry Koffee!" Johnathon said, trying to stand between the door and the big pink beast. "Lion chill out." He said, turning and shutting the door behind him. "Stay." He said, holding his hands up. "We'll buy you something while we're in." H11 said, rubbing the animal behind the ear as she grabbed D13's arm and they all walked back inside. "Sorry about that Koffee." Johnathon said sheepishly, approaching the counter.

The man scoffed but sighed, pinching his nose. "Kiki! Jenny! We have customers!" he barked, turning on his heel and heading into the kitchen. The three exchanged a look. They had been in Fish Stew a few times with Steven, but the two teens must have been off the clock, because they had only met Koffee during that time. The man seemed nice enough, though a bit abrasive. Madame Nanefua was their favorite, though.

The trio went to a booth and Johnathon picked up a menu After a few moments, a teen with hoop earrings and fair dark skin approached them, giving them a smile. "Hey guys. New to Beach City? I don't think I've seen you around before."

Johnathon shook his head. "No, actually. We've been here for a while, but have only been here with Steven a small handful of times." He explained, looking up from the menu. "Oh, you know Steven? That's awesome. He's a chill kid. I'm Jenny, by the way." She said, nodding at them. "I'm Johnathon. And this is H11 and D13." Johnathon said, gesturing to his friends across the table, who waved.

"Nice to meet you. So what are you hungry for?" Jenny asked, pulling out a pencil and a small notepad. "Steven says Lion really likes Lion Lickers." H11 piped up. "I don't know what kind of fish he likes, though." She admitted, shrugging. "Well, we don't sell Lion Lickers. That's at the Big Donut. I got you covered though. Steven's picked up stuff for Lion from here a few times." Jenny said, scrambling something down on a piece of paper. "Is ther something you kids wanted, though?" she asked, looking up.

The kids exchanged a look before D13 took out the small briefcase Greg had given them and opened it, handing Jenny a flier. "Yes, actually." Johnathon said, looking u pat the teen. "We're trying to start a band, and we heard that you and your sister play instruments."

Jenny arched an eyebrow and took the flyer, looking it over. "A band, huh? That sounds cool. Something fun to do instead of being tied down here all day." The teen said, stroking her chin. "You guys play?" she asked curiously. D13 and H11 shook his head. "Greg is teaching me guitar, but D13 want to learn keyboard, or whatever anyone is willing to teach us. Mr. Universe is helping with the planning of all of this stuff since he used to be in the music business."

"Cool. I'll run it by Kiki and get back to you." Jenny said, picking up the menus. "Can I get you anything else?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Johnathon shook his head, grinning. "No, we're good." He said, high-fiving his friends as she walked off. "You really think this is going to work?" H11 asked, raising an eyebrow. D13 also looked slightly skeptical. "I think so? And if not, at least we've got a chance to make some new friends." He said, shrugging.

….

"Padparatcha! Flourite! We're back." Rhutile whisper yelled as she stepped into a rather large and open area of the Kindergarten. "And we've got a new Off-Color." Freshwater cringed at being called an Off-Color, but didn't say anything as she followed the gems into the open space.

"Oh! Rhutile and Flourite are back!" Freshwater jumped at the small voice and looked down, arching an eyebrow when she saw the orange Sapphire below her. "Yes, Padparatcha, we're aware." Looking up, Freshwater felt her stomach jump into her chest when she saw the enormous fusion towering over her. "Whoa." She whispered, taking a step back. She found it hard to believe that gems so perfect as the Diamonds could make gems so….._wrong_.

"And who is this?" the caterpillar like fusion asked, her voice extremely slow but soothing, giving Freshwater a smile. "Freshwater." The gem said, waving at her. "You don't look Off-Color." The fusion noted, cocking their head to the side. "We know. But she was running from the robots up there, so it appears that looks can be deceiving." Rhutile said, shrugging. Freshwater frowned, biting her lower lip but again let it slide. "So. Who are you?" She asked, looking up at the fusion.

"My name is Flourite. I am a fusion of six gems. Seven if we find the right person. And Padparatcha can only see things that just happened." They said, looking down at the orange Sapphire. "Oh! A new-comer. Her name is Freshwater." She said, looking up at the Pearl.

Freshwater felt like her head would implode as she looked around at the gems before her. How _dare _these killer robots latch onto her? As if _she _were defective? As if she were wrong like these gems down here?

She couldn't be wrong….right?

Right?

…

Johnathon ran his hand through Lion's mane as he, D13, and H11 climbed off of the animal's back. They had just finished putting the fliers up around town and were now back at the Car Wash. "Thanks Lion." He said, scratching the animal behind the ears and giggling as he licked his face.

"Hey guys!" The pink haired boy looked up and waved as Steven came jogging up to him, a broad grin on his face. "Hey Steven." Johnathon said, waving as he came to a halt. He hadn't spent much time with the boy, but he was slowly becoming a part of their friend group due to their closeness in age. "I heard you guys wer forming a band. What are you looking for instrument wise?" he asked, beaming.

Johnathon shrugged. "Honestly? I don't know. I think we're just going to wing it. Have a good time. We do want to make some cash though, because we're trying to pay someone back." Steven arched an eyebrow. "Pay someone back? What for?" Johnathon's eyes widened. "Oh yeah that's right, I forgot to tell you! We may have wrecked this guys car on accident." He said sheepishly, rubbing his kneck.

Steven looked mortified. "How do you accidentally wreck someone's car?" he asked, looking up at H11 and D13. H11 shrugged. "We were walking and jerk almost ran Johnathon over. He swerved and crashed." The girl and her brother snickered. "Man you should've seen his face though. He was so mad. Dude's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head and like his veins were going to pop." D13 whispered something in her ear and the two siblings doubled over, laughing.

Johnathon blushed. "Come on guys, it wasn't that funny." He said, groaning. "The guy's name was Kevin. He was really mad." Steven stiffened. "Kevin." He said, looking between the siblings who were still crying with laughter. Johnathon nodded and a small smile crept up on Stevens face. "Nice." He said, clapping Johnathon on the back, who looed shocked.

"What do you mean nice?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. Steven shrugged. "Guy's a jerk." He said simply, giving Johnathon a smile. "But I'm still down to help in your band if you want to pay him back."

Johnathon sighed. "Technically the debt's already been paid thanks to Mr. Universe" he said, crossing his arms. "It's just the concept of the thing, ya know?" Steven sighed. "Yeah I get it, I get it." His eyes lit up. "Hey, look on the bright side! AT least the way you'll be making money is doing something you enjoy. Oh yeah, before I forget!" he said, grabbing Johnathon's arm and pulling him towards the Car Wash. "Dad's inside for your lesson. Jet's here too, and so are Peridot and Lapis."

Johnathon's eyes widened. "Oh man I totally forgot!" he said, quickly following Steven inside. "Don't worry about it." Steven said, shrugging. "They've been here for like an hour, but we've all been keeping busy." He said.


	8. A Better Different

"Sorry I'm late, guys!" Johnathon said sheepishly, putting his guitar case down and grabbing a music stand. "Don't worry about it kiddo! Just make sure it doesn't happen the night of your first concert." Greg said, ruffling Johnathon's pink hair. "You know about that?" Johnathon said, looking up at the man, surprised. Greg nodded. "Steven was showing me some of your fliers." He said, holding one up. "They're nice, but you'll probably need an advertising committee to help distribute better quality ones." He said, grimacing at the rips and tears in the current flyer.

"Not to worry, small human!" Peridot said excitedly, looking up from her spot at a rectangular table. "We've already got you covered!" she beamed, holding up a picture of a bright purple guitar with fireworks going off in the background. "I drew the pictures, Lapis colored them, and Jet wrote the words. It was a team effort!" the green gem beamed, high-fiving her blue barnmate.

Jet nodded. "Yeah, making meep-morps is fun." She said, looking up at Johnathon with a smile. "I'm also glad that you found something to entertain yourself with since we moved to Beach City. I was kinda worried we'd have trouble fitting in."

Johnathon nodded. "Yeah, I was kind of worried too. But I've got H11 and D13 by my side, so it really isn't that bad." He said, smiling at the siblings who were chasing each other around the inside of the Car Wash.

"I was thinking that we could start off simple. You're learning really quickly, but if you want to perform and sing at the same time, we'll need a more basic tune." Greg said, bringing Johnathon a stool. "If the teens of Beach City can't teach D13 and H11, then I can hire someone to do that." Johnathon bit his lower lip, guilt washing over his face. "But you've already done so much for us. Letting me, D13, and H11 live with you, paying for the damages for Kevin's car."

Mr. Universe shrugged. "At this point, I've got more money than I know what to do with. Don't worry about financial stuff." He said, putting a hand on Johnathon's shoulder. "You're a kid, and if you want to make money doing something you love so be it. But don't worry about financial stuff. While you're living with me, I've got you covered."

Jet couldn't help but smile as she watched Greg and Johnathon interact. At first she had been hesitant about letting Johnathon go live with him in his van with D13 and H11, as the original plan was for him to live with her, B9, Lapis, and Peridot in the barn. But after the rising tension that radiated from the area whenever B9 and Jet were around had almost spilled into a fight, she had decided that maybe it was for the best. After all, Greg was a great guy, and Johnathon appeared to thrive under him, so what was the harm?

The friendship between Steven and the pink haired boy was also something that she was grateful for. In fact, the relationship between Steven and the trio of humans from the zoo had definitely eased the shift from zoo to Earth a lot smoother, with Steven becoming a sort of leader for the trio, teaching them everything about Beach City and doing his best to keep the kids out of trouble. They were around his age, but weren't familiar with Earth customs. As for Y6 and J10, they spent most of their time at the Maheshwaren residence as Greg was worried about the van being cramped. Jet had only met them once, but they seemed like lovely people, especially their daughter Connie who seemed just as eager as Steven was to teach them the concepts of Earth.

Things were different now, but a god different. A better different.

She just hoped that B9 would come around to realize that.

…..

"So you found the Off-Colors?"

"Yeah, no thanks to you." Freshwater whispered, rolling her eyes at the Hessonite's words. The gem snorted, rolling her eyes. "How was I supposed to know that there was a secret catacomb of twists and turns in the Kindergarten?" she said, raising an eyebrow. Freshwater's eyes flashed for a moment, smirking at the tiny flinch she saw the orange gem flinch. She hadn't interacted with many gems, but her experience with the Hessonite so far had been irritating to say the least. The gem appeared to have a high superiority complex, every now and then forgetting that despite the fact tht she was a Pearl, she had more power than any gem on Homeworld.

"Anyhow," Freshwater continued, letting Hessonite's snide remark go now that she had re-asserted her dominance over the larger gem on the other side of the line. "I'll be sending you my location. Find a way to get down here before White decides to shatter your worthless gem for being of little assistance to me." She said coldly before shutting off the Diamond line and heading back to the small safe haven the Off-Colors were residing in.

Looking around, Freshwater let out a small sigh of relief when she saw that the Off-Colors were sleeping soundly in the holes they had burst from, light snores filling the area. Freshwater approached one of the holes in the Kindergarten cautiously, her curiosity piqued as she took mental screenshots of the place.

"Freshwater is back!"

Freshwater leapt into the air with a small yelp when she heard a small voice. Looking down and clutching her chest, she was surprised to see the orange Sapphire from earlier. The gem looked at the exit hole Freshwater had been gazing at before returning her gaze to the gem with a sad smile. "I predict that you are missing your exit hole." She said.

Freshwater frowned as she tore her eyes from the hole. "No." she said flatly. "I was trying to understand why you guys are so attached to your exit holes." She elaborated. Padparatcha shrugged. "It's home." She said simply. Confusion was etched in Freshwater's face. "It's wher you come from." She elaborated.

"Not all the time." Freshwater jumped again at the sound of Flourite's slow and calm voice behind them. "For some gems, Home is about the people around you who make you feel safe. Loved." She said, a small smile pulling at the edge of her lips.

Freshwater frowned and nodded. She understood the concept, but not the practice of the thing. The idea of becoming attached to a place because that was where you emerged from sounded foreign to her. Even more foreign was the idea of a person taking that place and being an idea of home. In fact, Freshwater couldn't even remember when she had popped out, or even where. Before she had assumed it had been Homeworld, but now that she saw the current state of the place she wasn't so sure.

Shaking her head, Freshwater put her hands behind her head and lay on the ground, trying to clear her mind as Padparatcha and Flourite talked quietly nearby. Closing her eyes, the gem spent what felt like an eternity trying to get to sleep, but she couldn't stop thinking about Flourite and Padparatcha's words. Home. A concept that made sense on paper, but she just….didn't know what hers would be. If she knew where her home was maybe she would be able to relate somehow, but she didn't, and for some reason that bothered her. It wasn't that she wanted to return to whatever Home was for her, as that would mean turning her back on the Diamonds. She just wanted to understand.

After what felt like another eternity, Freshwater stood and started to make her way deeper into the Kindergarten. Maybe she could find some other Off-Color gems on this planet? After all she hadn't been in the Kindergarten long before she ran into these gems. Maybe there were more hiding away somewhere?

Walking through the Kindergarten alone left Freshwater with a lot of time to think, something she wasn't used to nor did she enjoy. She often tapped at her visor to pull up her screens of reports, praying that White would have given her another mission by now. Hell she would have even settled for a mission from Yellow and Blue. Those missions were usually simpler tasks like cleaning and washing, but it was something to do. The gem started to turn to head back. She doubted that Hessonite had located her by now, figured that the Off-Colors were probably awake by now and that her lengthy disappearance would raise suspicion. Just as she turned around, however, she noticed something perculiar.

Freshwater knew little to nothing about exit holes, but she was fairly certain that these gems were all Pearls. Outlining a side view of a gem, the indent had a small form, tall slim legs, and large pointy nose, a combination she only ever saw in Pearls. Frowning, Freshwater decided to continue looking, snapping shapshot after snapshot of the area as she approached them. Stroking her chin, Freshwater couldn't help but note the extremely large quantity of Pearls in the exit holes compared to the extremely few number of Pearls on Homeworld. Only the best of the best, and even Hessonite herself did not have a Pearl.

So why was she now staring at what looked to be a wall with hundreds of indentations of Pearls carved into its core?

…

Amethyst looked up from her spot on the couch when she heard the temple door open. "Oh, heya P!" she said, grinning at the lithe gem as she rubbed sleep from her eyes and made her way over to the refrigerator. "Good morning Amethyst." The gem said tiredly. Amethyst frowned. Ever since Pearl had gotten back from her little escapade in space, she had been acting different. The purple gem had begun slacking around the house, trying to get a rise out of her, but every time she had left the house in disarray, she had come back to find the area cleaner than when she had left it. What _really _worried Amethyst, though, was that she had never even gotten scolded for it. Bismuth had tried to talk to her about it, and Garnet had tried to coax stories from the gem as well, but none of them had had any luck. The gem just didn't want to talk about it.

"You wanna play videogames?" Amethyst asked, hopping up and beginning to make her way to Steven's bed. "We can play that racing game we played when Connie slept over! You know the one you almost won at?" Pearl rolled her eyes but a small smile ghosted her face. "You mean before you hit me with that blue durian?" Amethyst nodded excitedly, starting to hook up the console. "Yeah! Crying Breakfast Friends Racers." She said, holding up the DVD. Pearl laughed lightly. That had been ages ago. They had even gotten Freshwater to play a few rounds with them, effectively separating her from her Pearl responsibilities for a few hours.

Amethyst's face fell when she sensed Pearl's sudden shift in mood. "Everything is different now." The gem muttered under her breath. "Not really. The controls are still the same." Amethyst said, trying to keep the mood upbeat, but Pearl didn't appear to have heard her. "Steven should be home in a few hours. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to play the racing game with you." The gem said, getting two cups from the cupboard before picking up the tea kettle and pouring some into each glass. "I know, but I really wanted to play with you." Amethyst said, putting the controller down. "Ever since you've got back, you've been acting different. Steven's worried about you, Garnet's worried about you." She looked away, pushing her hair out of her face. "I'm worried about you." She muttered, crossing her arms as she came to stand in front of the kitchen counter, Pearl's back to her.

For a moment, Pearl didn't say anything, pretending to busy herself with the tea that she had already poured. When she sensed that the purple gem hadn't left, though, she finally turned to face her. "I'm worried about Freshwater." She whispered, looking outside as if the short light blue Pearl was going to burst through it at any moment. Amethyst's eyes narrowed. "She wasn't worried about us when she almost turned us in to the Diamonds." Pearl stiffened, but didn't say anything, avoiding the purple gem's gaze as she made her way over to the gem door. She was too tired for this.

Amethyst sighed, exasperated. "Man, this is _just _like Rose." Pearl immediately went rigid when she heard the gem speak. Amethyst immediately halted as well when the words fell out of her mouth, equally surprised at her own words. Now she'd done it.

Pearl looked over her shoulder, and if looks could kill, the purple gem would be dead on the spot. Rather than lashing out, getting angry, and letting her emotions get the better of her, however, she simply locked eyes with the gem and whispered, "Don't" in a deadpan voice before turning and making her way to the gem door, opening it.

Amethyst growled, frustrated as Pearl stepped inside. "Don't what?" she snapped, going to the door as it closed in her face. "Don't speak the truth?" by now, Pearl was already in her room, staring at the fountains around her anddoing her best to ignore the raging gem on the other side to no avail.

"You think she cared about us? Cared about _you?"_ Amethyst snapped, banging on the temple door. "She didn't. She only exists to fill out orders." She snarled. "Just like any perfect Pearl would."

…

"Hey B9. B9 you've _gotta _see this."

B9 grumbled something in her sleep as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. She and Bismuth ahd been working all day, and she had decided to take a small catnap before they headed back to the temple like they always did. "Hm. What is it Bis?" she asked, lifting her head, immediately waking up when she saw a devilish glint in the gem's eyes. "Oh, not much." Bismuth said, a small glint in her eye as she held something behind her back. B9 snorted. "Yeah right." She said. I know that look. The last time I saw that look on your face you were telling me about that poisonous blade you made all that time ago." She said, standing and trying to peer around Bismuth's shoulder.

The taller gem snickered. "Fair enough. Anyway, you gotta see this thing." She said, gesturing for B9 to follow her. "I was working on a weapon for Steven." She explained, bending down and shapeshifting her hand into a cross shape before placing it into an indentation in the ground. "He has Rose's sword right now. My best work, if I do say so myself." Bismuth said with a small laugh as the floor began to lower, B9 grabbing onto her teacher's arm instinctively. "It can cut through a gem's physical form in an instant." Bismuth explained as the ground lowered and came to a halt. "Destroying the body. But not the gem."

"A fair fight." B9 said, looking up at Bismuth, who nodded. "Exactly. But not _this _baby though!" she said with a mad grin. "Homeworld decided they don't want to fight fare anymore." She explained, a dark shadow passing over her face. "Homeworld hit us where it counts, but we can do everything they can do. And _better_." She said, going over and picking up a black object and turning to B9, an evil glint in her eye. "And that's what we're going to teach them." Bismuth said strapped the weapon to her arm and whirled around, showing the item off.

B9's eyes widened as she got a good look at the weapon. It was a bulky thing, a weapon she was sure Steven would have trouble holding, a long intimidating, razor sharp point on the edge of it. "I call it a breaking point." She said, determined. "Watch this." She said, putting her foot on a spot in the ground and watching as lava poured from the ceiling and into a rock-like figure, which immediately sprung to life.

B9 instinctively huddled closer to Bismuth, mentally cursing herself for leaving her weapon up above. "Listen up you Homeworld upper crusts!" Bismuth bellowed, raising her arm as a small clicking noise filled the air. "We are," she said, putting it to one of the dummy's chest "the Crystal Gems!" As soon as the word "Gems" was uttered, the small lever of the weapon reared back and shot forwards, the razor sharp point at the end going right into the gem.

B9 watched, frozen as the hole in the middle started to crack before completely falling apart, chunks of the entity falling at her feet. "So, what do you think?" B9 asked, blowing off the whisps of smoke protruding from the point.

"You…shattered it." B9 said, looking down at the small chunks of earth at her feet. "That's right! One shot from this baby will shatter any gem in the galaxy in the blink of an eye." Bismuth said, her malicious grin only broadening. Bismuth continued, but B9 wasn't listening, her eyes locked onto the rocks at her feet. Stooping, she picked one up, her hands shaking slightly.

"Shattering a gem." She whispered, her hands shaking as the clumps of rock changed again, making her flinch. "Destroys their form forever." She said, looking up at Bismuth, who nodded. "Exactly! That way they can't retake this planet when they're reduced to no more than shards."

"You can't do that." B9 whispered, shaking her head and dropping the piece of rock she had been holding. "It's not about what I can do. It's about what we have to do. Homeworld has been governing under an iron fist for far too long, and it's time to take them down a knotch." She said, taking B9's hand and starting to strap it onto the smaller gem. "It's time for _us _to take them down a notch." She said, walking over to another entity and activating it. "Why don't you give it a shot." She said, a glint in her eye.

B9 felt like she might be sick. These Crystal Gems. Shattering a Diamond, and now wanting to shatter _another? _The madness had been too much the first time, so she couldn't imagine what another Diamond Shattering would do to Homeworld. B9 opened her mouth to voice her concerns, but immediately reeled in shock when she saw the rock entity start to change form before her eyes.

Rather than the black earthly form, the figure standing in front of her was a bright fiery orange with icy blue eyes and red hair staring down at her. "No, no, no, no, no. Not now." B9 said, stepping back as her former leader regarded her with an icy glare. This was a hallucination. Buck was dead. She thought, putting a hand over her eyes and turning, her heart pounding in her chest. Ever since she had come to Earth, the gem had been haunting her dreams and even materializing in front of her in the form of hallucinations.

Opening her eyes and looking down, B9 stared at the breaking point before letting out a cry of fury and tearing it off her arm, hurling it to the ground and rounding on Bismuth. "Seriously? You can not be searious right now." B9 snapped, her eyes ablaze as she looked Bismuth in the eye. "After _everything_ I told you about Buck, you think I would be okay with shattering someone?" she said, angry tears spilling out of her eyes. Bismuth looked slightly taken aback. "Homeworld is the enemy, B9. This is _nothing _like that."

B9 shook her head, her eyes flickering behind her. Luckily, the hallucinated form of her leader had gone, but her anger remained. "Homeworld is _not _my enemy." She snarled, kicking the breaking point away. "And shattering gems isn't going to make them any less of yours."

Bismuth's eyes widened before a sneer crossed her face. "What do you mean Homeworld isn't your enemy?" she asked seriously. B9 flinched at the sudden edge in the Bismuth's voice but held her ground. "I mean that I'm not a Crystal Gem." She spat the words Crystal and Gem out like saying them left a bad taste in her mouth. "I've never been one, and I never will be one. I will never fight for a bunch of shatterers."

"Watch your mouth B9." The Bismuth said coolly. "I'm rather fond of you, and always have been. But you're sounding a lot like you're still rooting for Homeworld in all of this. Anyway, don't act like Homeworld hasn't shattered many gems in their day. They're just as bad as us. Worse even." Bismuth said, a fire in her eyes.

B9 laughed without humor. "You Crystal Gems don't know what it's like." She whispered, shaking her head. "You don't _get it. _You at least have something left of Rose in the form of Steven. But when a gem is shattered, _that's it._ They don't _come back_." She said, angrily wiping tears from her eyes. "They're gone, and they leave you with a pile of regret for things that you logically shouldn't be regretful for." She muttered, raising her gaze. "Regret and, if you're anything like me, visions. Hallucinations." She muttered, locking eyes with her leader who was standing in the corner of the room, arms crossed. She never truly went away for B9. She was always lingering just outside of her line of sight, and was only front and center when the grief was too much to bear.

"Yellow and Blue Diamond didn't want this war." She muttered. "They seem like ruthless dictators, but that's what grief can do to a person. You realize they're gone, and it just eats you up inside. You get angry. Ruthless. Unempathetic. Like me." She said, her voice shaking. "If you want to shatter another Diamond and lapse yourself into another war, then so be it. But I _won't _be helping you." She said, her eyes boring into Bismuth's.

The taller gem listened to B9's words, growing more and more frustrated. Why didn't she see that this weapon could be the solution to all of their problems? That if they got rid of the Diamonds, they wouldn't have to worry about being sought out and killed. She sounded a lot like Rose.

Bismuth grit her teeth at the realization. "That sounds a lot like something Rose would say." B9's eyes flashed. "Don't you _dare _compare me to that pathetic shatterer." She snarled, standing her ground. "I'm nothing like her. I've done things I wish I could take back. Hurt gems that I claimed to love. But I would _never _shatter anyone." She spat. "Well it's a good thing I don't need your approval then, isn't it?" Bismuth said, raising an eyebrow, her cold gaze not faltering.

"Your opinion isn't needed here, B9. You aren't a Crystal Gem. I thought you could be, but you've shown me that's not the case." The gem said coolly. B9 barked a laugh in response. "I'm glad. I wouldn't want you to see me as a Crystal Gem anyway. Because I'm not one. Nor will I ever be." She said, turning her back on her former teacher.

After a moment, B9 heard a low chuckle behind her, sending a chill running down her spine. "Rookie mistake, B9." The taller gem said, grabbing the gem by the back of the shirt and lifting her off the ground easily, turning her o face her. "Never turn our back on an opponent." She said, gripping B9's uniform in her hand before easily throwing her into the nearest wall like a ragdoll.

B9 gasped and cried out as she collided with the wall, her head pinging off of the side of it and sending her crashing to the ground, her head swimming. The more powerful Bismuth stood over her shorter less experienced counterpart, looking down on her with pity in her eyes. "You sit here for a moment. I'm going to see what Garnet has to say about our newest traitor." B9 tried to push herself up, but the room was slowly darkening and she simply fell back down weakly, the room quickly darkening around her, unconsciousness providing a break from the throbbing pain in her head as she slipped under.


	9. Gone

_**Hit a bit of a writers block for a while there, but we're good now. Buckle up because things are about to pick up. Also I get that the band subplot seems unimportant now, but believe me it comes into play later. Thanks for sticking with me through the inconsistency, so here's two back to back chapters. Enjoy!**_

Freshwater stared up at the many indentations in the walls. Looking at the many number of indentations compared to the utter lack of Pearls on Homeworld made her uneasy. What had happened to them? Where were they? She currently only knew of three besides herself, four iff you counted the Pearl currently fused with the Ruby guard.

She hadn't realized before how much larger these Pearls were compared to the herself until she stepped up to the nearest exit hole. The top of the Pearl's head was roughly a foot above her own, and looking around that appeared to be the standard design. Roughly a foot taller than herself, about the size of White, Blue, and Yellow Pearl.

Wait…was this the standard size of Pearls? Why was she so short compared to them? Was she considered something out of the ordinary? Off-Col –

Freshwater shook her head, frowning. No. Out of the ordinary, maybe. But that's what she was supposed to be. White Diamond had fixed her – Freshwater didn't know exactly what that meant, but she knew that White had made _her _perfect. So of course she was different.

Stepping into the exit hole, Freshwater rubbed her chin, looking around. She felt like she shouldn't have been there, like she was intruding on something. Freshwater hesitated and started to turn and ehad back, but something further back in the exit hole caught her eye. It was….shimmering?

Frowning, Freshwater turned and made her way to the back of the hole, kneeling to inspect the shiny chunks at her feet before cautiously picking a few of them up. They were a bright beautiful green color, and appeared to have just been disgarded into the nearest corner of the exit hole. For a moment, Freshwater wondered what she was holding before she jumped and reeled back, her heart jumping into her chest.

Gem shards.

As soon as the thoughts registered, a gut-wrenching pain filled her chest, making her cry out and fall to her knees as she felt her head start to pound. When she hit the ground of the Kindergarten, a vision flashed before her eyes. A fierce Agate gem standing over her, accompanied by a Peridot. They stood in front of a Pearl with green skin-tone and gright blue hair. The gem stood at roughly the size of the Agate, holding a Diamond salute as the gem inspected her.

"What do you think?" the Peridot asked, glancing at Holly Blue Agate. "Not a fan of the color. I took her home yesterday to clean my place, and she couldn't even work a duster without me teaching her. She knows little about cleaning, and knows even less about authority. She also talks too much, and I don't have time to babysit." The gem said with a sigh, pinching her nose.

A shudder passed through the gem as tears filled her eyes. "Please Holly Blue Agate, give me another chance! I can get it right, I swear!" The Agate sneered, looking up and summoning her weapon. "The Diamonds don't give seconds chances, and neither will we." The Peridot added, rolling her eyes. "Take your shattering like a true gem. A _perfect _pearl would realize that she's not good enough for the Authority and accept their fate."

The lithe green gem opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off when the Agate attacked, her whip tightening around her. Freshwater watched on, mortified, as the gem screamed in pain before poofing into a cloud of dust, leaving her gem behind.

Holly Blue Agate sighed as she dissipated her weapon and picked up the gem. Freshwater cringed and looked away as the menacing gem clenched her fist around the gemstone. "That's the third imperfect gem today. I think it's time to let the Diamonds know we need to move to a new planet." She said, looking at the Peridot gem as she continued to squeeze. Peridot nodded. "I'm already on it." The green gem said, pulling up her communicator and making a report.

"Log date 6-1-7-6: the Agate and I have managed to create life. But it's far from perfect." She said, glancing over when she heard a loud crunch, grimacing when she heard the sound of a cracking gemstone radiate from the Agate's hand. "We will, however, continue this mission until we make a creation that _is _perfect, but are requesting looking elsewhere as Homeworld simply cannot sustain efficient life. Peridot out." She said, looking away so she didn't have to see the Agate drop the green shards a her feeet, stomping it for good measure.

"Seems kind of overkill, doesn't it, Agate?" she said, raising an eyebrow. The Agate shrugged. "Get used to it. We'll be shattering many more gems if we can't get this mission right." She muttered.

Freshwater gasped as the vision ended, clutching her chest with one hand and holding the shards in the other. Shaking her head, Freshwater dropped the gem shards and tried to force her panic back, shakily climbing out of the exit hole. The indentations in the wall felt a lot more menacing as she looked up at them, not daring to go near the small mounds of glittering specks in the back of each one.

These holes no longer looked empty to her. They looked dead. These gems weren't roaming Homeworld, or even hiding from the wrath of the Diamonds.

They were simply…gone.

Shaking her head, Freshwater heaved a shaky breath and made her way over to the gem sharsd, forcing herself to scoop them up and bubbling them. White had made one thing very clear to her: shattering was not her duty. She was to poof and bubble, bring ems worthy of being shattered to White. But now she was faced with what looked like hundreds of Pearls shattered all around her.

The thought made her skin crawl. Getting rid of imperfection made somewhat since to her, but she'd never wanted the gems she was getting rid of to be killed. Poofed and bubbled forever, maybe, but never shattered. Bubbling the gem at her feet, Freshwater tapped the bubbled gem shards, sending them back to her room.

She then made her way around the Kindergarten, bubbling all of the Pearls she saw. "You weren't in our meeting spot." The gem said coolly, crossing her arms. Freshwater jumped when she heard a voice behind her. Looking up, she gave a nod of acknowledgement to Hessonite.

"Freshwater shrugged. "I was close to it. Anyway, I wasn't looking for this spot. I was looking around for more Off-Colors." She muttered, turning her back on the gem. Hessonite scoffed, crossing her arms. "Well you're lucky I took care of the gems for you. They're bubbled and currently in their little safe haven. All we need now is to get them back to White and give our report. I suggest you lie about how much effort you gave on this mission."

Freshwater scoffed. "I would never lie to my Diamond." She mutered, coming out of the exit hole. "Anyway, someone had to go deeper into the Kindergarten and look for any more Off-Colors." She muttered. Hessonite scoffed. "And you plan on doing that by going into the exit hole of a bunch of gems?" the elite said, raising an eyebrow. Freshwater shrugged. "They enjoy their exit holes." She said simply, leading the way back to the "safe haven".

Hessonite smiled at that. "Damn right they are. After I completely gassed the area to ensure they wouldn't wake up, all I had to do was go into their exit holes and take them out one by one."

"Mediocracy isn't something to be proud of." Freshwater said, rolling her eyes. Hessonite shrugged. "Better than being defective."

….

"Lion, stay." Johnathon said sternly, holding his hand out to keep the pink cat from following him into the Big Donut. "I'll bring you out some Lion Lickers whenever I'm done talking to Lars and Sadie. I promise." He said, closing the door.

"He's been following you around a lot. What's up with that?" Sadie asked from her usual spot behind the desk. "I don't know. He's usually hovering around Steven, but I guess he's just been extra clingy since he's been accompanying the others on missions."

"What do they even do?" Sadie asked curiously as the boy pulled up a spot and sat at the booth. "I dunno." Johnathon admitted, shrugging. "All I know is that apparently there's this big buff lady out there terrorizing gems, but since they can't find her they're taking on smaller threats just to stay on their toes. Me, D13, and H11 aren't exactly Crystal Gems, so we don't really help out. We're just kinda crashing there."

"Speaking of D13 and H11, why isn't the usual trio of naissances out and about?" Lars asked, looking up from his phone. "They finally get tired of you or something?" Johnathon rolled his eyes, far used to Lars's jerkish personality. "No." he paused. "Well at least I hope not considering that we'll be living together for a while now." The boys eyes lit up as Sadie put a donut in front of him, giving Lars a death glare which the teenager ignored. "Thanks Sadie!" he said, putting it to the side for now.

"Yeah, D1e is actually taking lessons from Sour Cream now, and H11 is taking singing lessons with someone Mr. Universe hired since we couldn't find anyone in Beach City." Johnathon explained excitedly. "Mr. Universe put together a few rehearsal songs we can put together for now until we actually get this band off the ground. We figured it would be a good idea to have a gameplan before the actual audition date in a few weeks."

"You're really serious about this, huh?" Lars said boredly, looking back down at his phone. "Kid, you do realize that you can't make a one hit song with the little experience you and your ragtag band have, right? Your first show will probably be more of a pity party than anything." He said, chuckling. Sadie glared at him, nudging him with her elbow.

Johnathon's face dropped as Lars and Sadie began to bicker back and forth. Lars was right, even if his words did kind of sting. He had never thought their band would make even one hit, but the words about their first show being a pity show were painfully true.

"Apologize? Apologize for what? Sadie you know as good as I do that A ragtag group of kids can't possibly become good enough for a show, at least not to the magnitude that this kid is thinking."

"Well maybe so, but you shouldn't crush his hopes like that! He's just a ki-"

"Can I get two packs of Li0on Lickers, Sadie?" Johnathon asked, disrupting the argument that had been going on between the two workers. Taken aback slightly, Sadie nodded and completed the transaction, shooting Lars several dirty looks.

"Johnathon I'm so-"

The pink haired boy waved Sadie off. "Don't worry about it. I'll let you know when our first show is. I would love for you two to come." He paused to look up at Lars. "Even if it is just because you pity us."

And with that, he put the cash he had left in his pocket into the tip jar and walked out, unwrapping a pack of Lion Lickers and tossing it to Lion as the door closed behind him as he became deep in thought.

Like it or not, Lars was right. He didn't know much about music, but he did know that a lot of people who studied it had started when they were young. Take Steven for instance. According to Greg, he had been holding a ukulele ever since he could talk, and he was fourteen now. Sighing, he unwrapped the second pack of Lion Lickers and sat on the nearest bench, biting into it as Lion sat in the sand next to him.

"No, I must be mistaken. A friend of Steven's would never eat a Lion Licker."

Johnathon jumped and looked up, slightly confused when Lion walked up to the person the voice belonged to, nuzzling her hair affectionately. The girl had nice brown skin with short black hair and eyes and was wearing a uniform of some kind – baggy blue pants with a blue top to match and a red ribbon around the waist. A long and pink bag of some kind was resting on her shoulders, and she looked exhausted.

Johnathon shrugged. "I don't think they're that bad." He said, shrugging. The girl snickered. "Don't tell Steven that. As his best friend, I can confirm that he would be crushed. Johnathon's eyes widened in recognition. "Oh, you must be Connie." He said, snapping his fingers. Steven talked about the girl often, but he hadn't registered who she was until she had mentioned being Steven's best friend.

Connie nodded, giving him a smile. "Right! Connie Mahashwaren. Your parents are staying at my place, remember?" Johnathon arched an eyebrow. "No?" he said, shaking his head. Connie looked equally confused. "J10 and Y6?" she said, cocking her head to the side. "Oh, no they aren't my parents." Johnathon said, chuckling. "We were in the human zoo together, but my parents are…..not here." He said, choosing his words carefully, smiling softly as Lion came over and licked his face comfortingly.

"So, what brings you to this side of town?" He asked before things could get too awkward or Connie could ask any more questions.

"Oh, I'm just heading back from Steven's. We had sword training practice with Pearl today, but it got cut short because this other gem needed to show him and Garnet something?" she shrugged. "I dunno. I was just heading back now, actually and I saw you with Lion so I figured I would say hi since we hadn't been properly introduced." She explained.

"Well it's nice to meet you Connie. My name is Johnathon." The pink haired boy said, giving her a smile as he bowed. Connie giggled and did the same. "Nice to meet you." She said, her eyes lighting up. "Hey, you should come over tomorrow sometime! Me and Steven are supposed to be hanging out in his mom's room. He usually doesn't like being in there, but sometimes we just go in there and re-enact our favorite scenes from our favorite book. Last time was kind of…..iffy, but we've been meaning to try again with other stuff. Keep the imagination in check, ya know. We won't have it forever."

Johnathon thought on that for a moment and almost agreed, but hesitated when he looked back at the Big Donut. "I'll….think about it." He said, looking back at her. "I really want to make sure I'm ready for our first show – whenever that will be." Connie nodded. "Okay. Just be sure not to practice too hard. Balance is the key, after all!" she beamed.

Johnathon opened his mouth to ask what she meant, but before he could, Connie reached into her pocket and pulled out a small rectangle. He'd seen Steven use his once or twice, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what the thing was called.

"Hey mom – yes. Okay. Yes ma'am, I'm on the way home now. I promise. No, I didn't get hurt at sword training practice, mom. You know Pearl wouldn't let that ha- Well _yeah _there was that one time-" Connie put her hand to the end of the rectangle and sighed, looking at Johnathon. "I'll see you later, Johnathon." She said, shaking her head as she made her way down the boardwalk, putting the small rectangle to her ear as she continued to talk.

…..

"You know this isn't healthy, right?"

Pearl ignored the statement as she sat cross legged in front of the figure in front of her, putting one of the cups of tea on a coaster and holding the other in her hands. It was odd to watch the gem's lips move and hear her own voice speaking, but it was the best she could do since she didn't have the real thing.

"Pearl." The voice repeated, a little more softly this time. "How long are you going to keep this up? It's been weeks now." The hologram asked, flickeing for a moment. Besides the light blue tint, the gem looked the same as she had looked before the two had separated – Mohawk hairstyle, black shirt, and visor. The only thing that was different about Freshwater was that Pearl imagined the gem with a bright star in the middle of her shirt to replace the Diamond Authority's logo. The others may have still held resentment towards her – hell Pearl even found herself becoming angry with the gem sometimes. But after all the two had been through, she couldn't see her as anything besides a Crystal Gem.

"I…..don't know." Pearl whispered, putting the still hot cup down and looking away from the hologram. She had told herself that she wouldn't do this. Make long lost loved ones in a desperate attempt to ease the pain of knowing that they were gone. But she just couldn't _help _it. She'd done it with Rose before Garnet had caught her and she had stopped out of shame, and she now found herself doing it with Freshwater.

The hologram removed their visor and put it next to them, taking Pearl's face in their hands. "Pearl. You can't keep doing this to yourself." They whispered, their form glitching out slightly as they came in contact with Pearl's skin.

"It isn't healthy."

"Pearl?"

Pearl jumped and immediately turned around, the hologram of Freshwater immediately flickering out as she turned and faced the stoic leader.

"Oh, Garnet! Are we going on another mi-"

"You aren't handling losing Freshwater well."

Pearl gulped. It wasn't a question as she looked away, tears springing into her eyes as she fought back a sob. "No." she admitted, hugging herself.

The leader nodded sadly and came to sit next to the pale gem, putting a hand around her. The fusion still held a lot of resentment towards Freshwater, but she never brought it up to avoid upsetting Pearl. She felt angry at Freshwater, but her heart ached as she watched Pearl go through the grieving process again, and appeared to be going through it alone this time, as the only other person who had been especially close to her, Steven, was currently convinced that the gem was still alive and well.

"Do you think Steven could be right?" Pearl whispered, looking up at the fusion when she had composed herself. "Or are his dreams just that. Dreams."

Garnet pursed her lips, hesitating. "I…..don't know." She admitted, looking away. She hated giving that answer as much as Pearl hated receiving it. Lately her vuture vision had been thrown off by a landslide, with so many things happening that she had never expected. Freshwater trying to turn over a new leaf, Pearl being transported back to them via bubble, the humans arriving on the ship, four gems (Lapis, Peridot, B9, and Jet) who she wasn't sure she could even consider part of her team or not. There was just too much going on for her to even focus on determining a future.

She just….didn't know.

For a few minutes, Garnet and Pearl just sat together, not saying anything, which was fine with Pearl. She didn't want the fusion to say anything about Freshwater – she wasn't stupid. She knew the gems didn't feel the same way about Freshwater that she did, and Pearl was honestly okay with that. After all, they didn't know exactly how much the gem had changed over the course of everything they'd been through together.

They didn't understand, and Pearl would rather them not try to act like they did, or worse try to tell her how awful of a gem she was.

…..

"Hey Steven, you seen Garnet around?" Bismuth asked, stepping off the warp pad and looking up at Steven who was playing videogames on his bed. "She went in Pearl's room a few miutes ago." Steven said, putting the game on pause.

Bismuth glanced at the door. "She's still not over it, huh?" Steven shrugged and started to make his way down the stairs. "Freshwater and Pearl must have gotten pretty close throughout everything. I mean we still don't exactly know what happened. She doesn't even really wanna talk about it." He said, rubbing his neck nervously, worry etched in his features.

Bismuth pursed her lips as she looked at the door to the temple. "Well I suppose I don't exactly _need _Garnet." She said, glancing back at Steven with a glint in her eye. "Technically you've got Rose's gem, and Rose used to be the leader, so that makes you leader now." Steven laughed nervously. "No not really. I still have a lot to learn. If anything, Garnet's the leader." He said, nodding at the temple door.

Bismuth hesitated. She supposed she could bring her former apprentice to the temple. I mean after all, they outnumbered her by a long shot, and she was a lot weaker than even one of them. "Alright, fair enough. But I do want to show you your new weapon though!." She said, a glint in her eye. "I've been working on it since I was unbubbled, and believe me, it will do you a lot of good to get some training in before you use it." She said, making her way back to the warp pad and motioning for Steven to follow.

"A new weapon? That's awesome!" Steven said excitedly, following her. "Mine are mostly for defensive stuff, but Connie can't defend me all the time so offensive weapons would be a good idea too." Bismuth nodded, her smile growing.

"Exactly."


	10. Rising Tensions

_**Guess who finally kicked their Writers Block! Enjoy!**_

"So let me get this straight, you and White Pearl aren't the same." Hessonite said, glancing around herself a the bright white bubble that enclosed them. Freshwater sighed and rolled her eyes. "For the last time, Hessonite, no. We aren't." she said. "Well, what happened to her? You two serve the same Diamond-"

"I serve all the Diamonds." Freshwater interrupted, a hint of smugnesss in her voice. "Rrriigghhtt." Hessonite said, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. "You serve all the Diamonds. But you're nothing like any of their Pearls. Isn't that weird to you?" she asked as the bubble reopend and deposited them in Homeworld's square amongst the hustle and bustle of many a gem.

"No?" Freshwater said, looking up at Hessonite. "I was made to serve them all. They were made to serve a singular Diamond. Anyhow, I had all of my flaws perfected. Or rather, all of the things that caused my flaws taken. That isn't to say that the other Pearls are not perfect for their Diamonds, of course, but I have to fit the criteria to be good for all of them. So of course I'm different." She explained. "Now, if you're done with your little QnA, you should probably give your report." Freshwater said, making her way into the crowd and not waiting for Hessonite's response. She was glad to be back on Homeworld's grounds. While she had technically never left, the Kindergarten felt like another place entirely.

When the gem reached her place of residence, she heaved a sigh of relief, opening the door and stepping in.

"Long couple of days?"

Freshwater jumped when she heard the soft voice from the couch. "Blue. Hello." She said, closing the door behind her. The Pearl chuckled lightly. "Sorry I scared you." She said, not taking her eyes off of her small tablet. "Drawing again?" Freshwater asked, arching an eyebrow. She didn't understand how the Pearl did this whenever she had what little free time Her Diamond gave her. It just seemed so….pointless.

"Yes." The Pearl said, a soft smile etching itself into her features. "Yellow, stop falling asleep." She said, a hint of irritation in her voice as she glanced over at her Yellow counterpart who was laying on the couch in front of her. "I can't help it. You're taking forever, and have me in an extremely comfortable position." She said, opening her eyes and nodding in acknowledgement at Freshwater, who did the same.

"You took long enough." She said with a small smirk. "Sure was." Freshwater said, stretching. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a report to write."

"Let us know if you need anything." Blue said. Her Yellow counterpoint snickered. "She won't."

Freshwater rolled her eyes but repressed a small smile as she resided to her quarters. She was still getting used to Yellow and Blue. Unlike White Pearl, the gems appeared to have some sort of connection, often talking about their missions in the open with each other. Freshwater didn't approve of this, but didn't find it too weird considering their missions often aligned with one another. Despite the fact that this friendship appeared to have been put in place long before she had joined the crew, the gems didn't shy away from trying to include the Pearl in conversation. Freshwater rarely ever went into too much detail, but part of her did appreciate the offer.

The Pearls weren't Perfect, but Freshwater hadn't expected them to be. They were made to serve one Diamond, and it was apparent that in their Diamonds eyes they were good enough to serve them. And frankly, they worked hard, even in terms of Blue's drawings. They weren't sloppily done, and the gem would often be up all night finishing them. She didn't want her Diamond to just have some garbage she had grown together in the blink of an eye. A useless actic to her, but the Pearl wasn't made for her. She was made for Blue.

Freshwater sat at her desk and pulled up her screen, pushing her thoughts way and focusing her attention on her recent mission as she began to crank out the details of her report. These never took long – after all, her memory was perfect. She remembered everything from when White first showed her to Yellow and Blue to last night in extremely vivid detail, even down to some of her most random dreams. She spent a lot more time double and triple checking her work and tweaking it to perfection than she did actually remembering the days events.

An hour later, Freshwater's eyes were drooping closed slowly, and the gem groaned, pushing herself away from her desk and standing. Sleeping was such a waste of time, but she found she needed it. Rare was the chance that White allowed her to rest, as she was always on the go. Sometimes Blue and Yellow Diamond had her complete tasks, of course, but those tasks were a lot easier to complete, but still gave her great satisfaction. Cleaning the extraction chambers, dusting the court's chairs, sitting in on a small trial or two. White's missions, though, were usually time consuming, and were jobs that she would sometimes think of as being better fit for a Quartz or Amethyst guard. She never questioned this, though. Orders were orders, and they had to be completed.

Freshwater walked around for a while before sitting back at her desk. The last place she had lef off, she was explaining was the sleeping arrangements of the Off-Colors. The next thing that had happened was – The gem's blood ran cold as her fingers hovered over the screen. Oh yeah. The visions.

Did White and the others even need to know about those? They didn't seem to have anything to do with her mission – collect the Off-Colors and bring them back. She had further explored the Kindergarten and had learned more information than she needed to know. Those images and visions had nothing to do with the Off-Colors, so why waist White's precious time with tellingng her about them?

Shaking her head, Freshwater decided to only state that she had bubbled a handful of shattered gems. She didn't mentioned what type, as they only really mattered to her, not to White. She also figured White already knew about them. After all, they had been on Homeworld and it wasn't like tons of gems being shattered on the Home planet would go unnoticed or undocumented. She then closed her report off by telling the Diamonds about their success in bringing the Off-Colors to Homeworld's surface before submitting her report and collapsing on the bed, exhausted.

For what felt like an eternity, Freshwater stared up at the ceiling, tossing and turning as she waited for sleep to overcome her. What was going on? The gem could usually _easily _sleep into sleep cycles, and her body was begging her to. Her mind, however, was completely awake, and only had one thing running through it – the visions in the Kindergarten.

Try as she might, Freshwater couldn't stop thinking about it. Images of the Agate poofing pearl after pearl after pearl flashed across her mind. They were all deemed imperfect for one reason or another, and thus went unused. That, however, didn't explain why she didn't receive the same treatment. As White had said, she had had her flaws fixed, whatever that meant.

Why hadn't the other Pearls received the same treatment? Why had White decided to spare her from whatever fate the pearls had suffered? What had triggered whatever vision she had seen in the Kindergarten? What made her stand out?

What was White hiding from he-

"Did you finish your report?"

Freshwater sat bolt upright in bed, clutching her fast beating heart. Looking to the doorway, she stiffened slightly. "Yes, White. I did. I just sent the information in to your Diamond." She said, leaning over and flicking on the lamp. White Pearl _always _creeped her out, even if she was just standing there.

"That's good." The Pearl said, her ever present smile not faltering from her face. Freshwater nodded awkwardly and stood. "I assume White Diamond sent you to get me?" she said, climbing out of her bed. "No. White Diamond has requested the bubbles from the Kindergarten."

Freshwater frowned. "You mean the Off-Colors? Hessonite has th-"

"No." the Pearl said flatly, making Freshwater jump flinch slightly. "The other Pearls. From deeper inside the Kidnergarten. The ones you mentioned in your report?" the Pearl said, a hint of White's irritation present in her voice. Freshwater looked even more confused. "But…I bubbled them. I assumed they went to White?" she said, confused.

After a beat of uncomfortable silence, White Pearl frowned. "White Diamond has requested your presence." She finally said flatly. "She requests you get a good night's sleep so you can be on the top of your game tomorrow." She finally said beore drifting out of the room.

….

"And they just…appeared in your room?" Amethyst said, dumbfounded. The pale gem nodded curtly, tension still etched in her face. Though she and the shorter gem were on speaking terms, Amethyst's comments about Freshwater still rang in her head.

"They actually appeared while I was sharpening my swords." She explained, handing one of the many bubbled gems to Garnet. The fusion hesitated but took it, holding it up to her face. "Gem shards." She muttered. "The bubbles don't look very strong." Amethyst pointed out, lightly poking the bubble and yelping when it popped. Almost instinctively, the fusion rebubbled the shards and let them float upward to join the other bubbles in the heart of the temple.

"We also don't shatter gems, so it couldn't have been any of us." Pearl pointed out as well, pursing her lips as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Their leader remained silent, stroking her chin. "Yeah yeah all of that is weird, but why did the bubble show up in your room?" Amethyst asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I'm not su-" the pale gem's statement was cut short by a small 'pop' next to her ear, all eyes turning to see a small bubble floating right above her head. Inside were more gem shards of different colors. "I don't think it's your room." Garnet said, glancing from the bubbled gem above Pearl's head to the ones on the floor.

"You don't think this has something to do with…" Pearl asked, her voice trailing off as she hesitantly took the bubble in her hands.

"It doesn't matter." Garnet said flatly, unbubbling one of the gemstones and rebubbling it in her own more secure one. "For now, let's just put these in a safer bubble and leave them here." Amethyst nodded in agreement before stooping next to Pearl and begging the long process of unbubbling each of the many gems at Pearl's feet.

Pearl stared down at the bubble in her own hands, a dull ache in her heart. She understood that her teammates were upset with Freshwater, but she couldn't find herself harboring the same emotions. Of course she was hurt, but she was also worried. Even if the bubbled gems weren't from Freshwater, it meant something awful had happened and left many gems shattered.

"So….we're just going to leave them here?" Pearl said, looking up at the fusion, who stiffened. "Yes." Garnet said, taking the bubble from Pearl's hands. "We have enough going on on Earth to be worried about whatever is going on on Homeworld."

"But what about –"

"She made her choice to stay on Homeworld." Amethyst snapped, anger temporarily getting the best of her. "I understand that everyone makes mistakes, but that gem almost cost us our lives. Almost cost Steven _his _life. She almost single handedly took away the only family I've ever h-"

"Garnet put a hand on Amethyst's shoulder and the purple gem immediately fell silent, glaring at the ground. After a tense moment, the fusion finally opened her mouth to speak, but before she could do so, the Temple Door flew open and Steven ran inside, holding something in his hands as tears streamed down his face.

A chorus of "Steven!"s echoed around the room and Garnet quickly rushed forward and picked him up, Amethyst at his side. Pearl hurriedly rebubbled the gems that were left before turning around and going to check as well.

Garnet and Amethyst were trying to comfort the boy, but it was proving extremely difficult as he just held the bubbled gem and tried to explain what had happened. Even if he had managed to make any amount of sense, it wouldn't have mattered as the gems were oo fixated on the bubbled Bismuth in his hands.

…

B9 groaned and pushed herself to a sitting position, blinking to try to get her eyes to adjust, a task that proved rather difficult due when the bright rays of the sun kept bouncing off of the rocks of the Beta Kin-. The Bismuth stopped dead in her tracks and put a hand to her head. "What was she doing in the Beta Kindergarten? The last thing she remembered before blacking out was her fight with –

The gem growled under her breath, startling herself as the sound almost sounded animalistic. Bismuth. That good for nothing gem had turned on her! Had listened to her story, the pain and heartache shattering brought – and she had the _nerve _to show her the Breaking Point?! Pushing herself to her feet, the gem forced herself to walk, feeling awkward and dizzy on her feet. "What is _wrong _with me?" the gem thought aloud, returning her hand to the side of her head and rubbing it gingerly, trying to ignore the way her speech slurred and how her tongue felt too big for her mouth. The gem couldn't quite describe it, but she just felt…._off_. Her memory was splotchy, and she couldn't even remember why she had come out here. Maybe she could at least find a warp pad? Get back to the barn and let Jet know what had happened? The two of them weren't on the friendliest of terms, but she didn't want her to trust those….those….

"Crystal gems." B9 said, her voice a low growl. Diamonds, was her throat dry. She noted, her tongue darting around the inside of her mouth and running over canine like sharp teeth. Continuing her journey, the gem came to a halt in front of a gem injector that had been cast aside, leaving a gaping hole down below. Curiously, the gem took a few steps forward, an extremely strong aroma wafting into her nostrils.

Someone had been here. Recently.

B9 blinked at the thought. She wasn't sure how the smell alone had told her this, but she _knew. _Noting this, the gem put her hand to her chest to pull out her weapon, but nothing happened. Cursing the Bismuth that had done this, she cautiously made her way down the steep slope, enjoying the way the feeling of being down below in the darkness instead of above where the burning Beta Kindergarten made her feel like she was melting.

As the gem continued her descent, she began to feel a warm feeling in her chest. She knew this place from somewhere, but couldn't place it. Well, if she couldn't remember it, why was it important?

This thought made the gem stop again. Looking over her shoulder, she contemplated going back up to the surface but quickly changed her mind when she remembered the scorching heat. She'd just poke around for a moment and then head back up.

When she finally reached the bottom of the slope, B9 shielded her eyes as the area around her lit up, bathing the area in a dim green light, and was an extremely….underwhelming experience. "Canisters?" the gem murmured to herself, putting her hand on one of the many grey things that appeared to have been attached to the wall.

Maybe she should open i-

B9 froze. There it was again. That weird smell.

Backing away from the canister, B9 peered at the injector slope. After a moment, the gem started to hear the sound of slow, yet heavy footsteps coming downwards. B9 swore under her breath and started to look from somewhere to hide, accidentally knocking over a canister behind her. The canister! Yes, she could hide in there!

B9 turned to quickly take refuse in the place, but froze when she saw the two brightly colored orange gem shards topple over and onto the ground, her breath catching in her chest. "That's why I remember this place." She whispered, feeling the memories rush back and flash before her eyes.

_(Flashback)_

B9 stared down at the bubbled gem shards, trying to force herself to send them away to the Cluster. She couldn't do this. Not to Buckstar. To any other rebel, sure. She'd done it time and time again, telling herself that these were no longer gems, that the diamonds had long since one away with them. But this? This was different. She had known this gem. She'd felt something for this gem that she had never felt before.

Buckstar was an idiot, a traitor, a rebel. B9 claimed to hate her, cursed her name to everyone who would listen. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She'd rather have her leader broken into a million pieces rather than have her continue to suffer like this – tied to a million other poor souls. This was why she never liked poofing gems. Every gem she ever bubbled was sent to that cursed place. It was the only reason she needed to bubble gems, so the Diamonds didn't see an issue with this.

But with Buckstar? She just couldn't do it.

Sighing, the gem unbubbled the shards and held them to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks as she sunk to her knees in the room she was currently standing in. When she had composed herself, she glanced over at an empty container and narrowed her eyes as she put the broken shards inside securely and turned to her computer to give her report, her heart thudding in her chest as she prepared to lie through her teeth.

_(End Flashback)_

"The latest gem has been put into the cluster." B9 muttered, picking up the gem shards. "You will also be pleased to hear, My Diamond, that your mission is complete. The Cluster has all of its necessary gems and will be ready to explode in a few millennia. No further gems are necessary for this project, and any other gems added will only weaken the hold. I look forward to my next mission. B9 over and out." She remembered the report well. It had been the only time she had lied in a report, and she could still taste the guilt. Nothing had been true in that report. The Cluster was nowhere _close _to being ready, so when it finally did implode it probably wouldn't even take out the Earth. It probably wouldn't even look like a force not to be reckoned with.

Staring down at the gem shards, B9 felt a single tear roll down her face. At least she had done something less than morally grey in her life. The gem chuckled at the thought and raised the shattered gemstone to her gem to put it away, not wanting anything bad to happen to them. Frowning, the gem poked at her gemstone her eyes narrowing in confusion when it didn't light up.

"Corrupted gems can't use their gemstones."

B9 jumped and whirled around, clutching the shattered gem to her chest as she stared up at the gem standing at the bottom of the slope. As she took a step into the dimly lit area, B9 instinctively took a step back, feeling a low growl rumble in her throat. This was the gem she had been smelling earlier. She knew it, and for some reason it made her skin crawl.

The built gem barked a laugh as they stepped into the light, pushing their white mane out of their face. "You think I'm scared of you, runt? You're too far gone to scare me." B9 stayed silent, lookin the gem up and down. She was considerably bigger than B9 and had bright orange skin with amber eyes, a bright orange gemstone on her nose.

"I don't want any trouble." B9 said, stepping to the right and feeling her heart skip a beat when the gem stepped in front of her path. "Good choice." She said, rushing the gem and grabbing her by the scruff of the neck, holding her high above her with a malicious grin.

B9 gasped as she instinctively dropped the gem shards and grabbed the bigger gem's arm, trying to slap it away. "Let go!" she snarled, kicking the gem swiftly in the chest. The gem holding her looked down at the gem shards and back up at B9. "You're really protecting these?" she said, her shit-eating grin not leaving her face. "Kid. Let me level with you for a second." She said, bringing her fist close to her face so she could look the gem in the eye. "Whoever you're trying to protect." She said, her foot raising above the pile. "Is gone. That's what shattering is. You Crystal Chumps should know that." She said, fire in her eyes.

"Stop!" B9 snapped, terror immediately replacing her anger as the gem's foot started to come down on the gem shards. "Th-That's all I have left of her!" she pleaded, squirming. "B-Besides I'm not a Crystal Gem. I…I don't have the star."

"Just because you don't have the star doesn't mean you aren't a crystal Gem." The gem snarled. "Traitors exist everywhere in the Authority. And at least you still have shards. The Auhority didn't even get that thanks to you losers." She snarled, tossing B9 like a ragdoll and watching as she crashed into a wall of containers, her vision going black for a moment.

"Like I said, you're too far gone." B9 groaned and picked her head up, feeling her head swim again as her form distorted. Bringing a hand to her gem, she raised an eyebrown when she realized it was still fully intact. "Your gem is fine. You're corrupted, idiot. Pretty soon you'll join my army." B9 raised her eyes to argue, but immediately fell silent when she saw Jasper holding the gem shards in a clenched fist. "And you call yourself a Bismuth. Man, you're clearly the runt of the litter then."

B9 growled again and picked herself up, feeling hot anger start to coarse through her, making her vision blur momentarily. "This planet ruins everything. I've seen so many gems like you. Attatched to one another, and as soon as they lose whoever they care about," the gem glared as she closed her fist and a soft crunching sound was heard.

"They snap." She said, opening her hands and watching as what was left of the gem shards fell o the ground, now just a mound of dust.

For a moment, all was deathly quiet as B9 stared in shock, feeling the hot anger start to bubble up inside her and start to boil over. She couldn't do this. She didn't even have a weapon. She should jus turn back while she had her life and make a run for i-

"Gem probably wasn't much of anythi8ng either. Not even good enough for the Authority."

B9 launched herself at the gem, a beast-like roar ripping through her body as she felt herself slip into a blind rage, the blood rushing to her head as she blacked out in a rage.

…...

"And she was planning on using it on a gem?!" Pearl exclaimed, bewildered. "Dude, that's like the number one rule of the Crystal Gems. No shattering." Amethyst said, equally shocked. Steven nodded, wiping the tears from his face as he sat in the fusion's lap.

"I think the corruption kind of threw her off before she could do anything about it." He said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "That's…bittersweet." Peridot said from her spot on her hovering trash can. "At least she got away?" she said, glancing up at Jet, who just looked confused.

"What's corruption?" the Onyx gem asked.

The Crystal Gems exchanged a look before Pearl cleared her throat and spoke. "Well…truthfully we don't have a cler understanding of how it works." The gem admitted. "All we know is that long ago, this planet was attacked by all three of the Diamonds, and anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in the fire was turned into some type of monster and left to roam earth. That's one of the reason we formed the Crystal Gems – to seek out Gems who had been hit by the blast and bubble them until we find a way to heal them."

"That is _if _they can be healed." Amethyst added, ignoring the disapproving daggers Pearl was shooting at her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you are _not _poofing my teammate." Jet said, narrowing her eyes at Pearl, who snorted. "Oh, don't pretend the two of you weren't contemplating doing worse to Fresh-"

"Enough." Garnet snapped, effectively cutting the argument short before it even began. The fusion was suddenly painfully aware of one of the advantages to having a small crew – relationship difficulty. As much as their additions to the crew were welcomed, trying to keep gems from butting heads every day was growing tedious. With the rising tension between Amethyst and Pearl, and B9 and Jet, her Ruby was rearing it's head more often than not.

"So let me get this straight. You unbubbled a Bismuth gem." Lapis said in a deadpan voice, her mind automatically flashing back to her being trapped in the mirror. "Well, in Steven's defense it may not have been the same Bismuth." Peridot put in, trying to ease the tension as well.

"Somehow I doubt that. This Bismuth sounds pretty ruthless, as was the one who put me in the mirror."

"She's not ruthless." Steven said sheepishly. "Just-"

"Steven, she attacked you and tried to shatter a gem. All in the same day." Lapis pointed out. "She was also going to shatter a Diamond, which would be half of the Authority gone." Jet said, her face turning cold. "Diamonds name, Crystal Gems, are you _looking _for another war? The blood of one Diamonds on your hand not good e-"

"Enough!" Garnet snapped, slamming her fist on the table and making Steven jump. "Sorry Steven." She muttered before growing angry again. "We don't have time to sit around and bicker. Gems." She said, turning to Amethyst and Pearl, who had turned away from the group and had a hand clamped over her mouth.

"Let's go take care of this corrupted gem."

"I'm coming too." Jet said, standing. Garnet opened her mouth to argue, but Steven put a hand on her leg. "Maybe she can talk to her? The last time I saw her she wasn't all the way gone yet." He said, flashing his puppy dog eyes at the fusion, who glared at the ground before looking up at Jet. "Fine. But I can't promise it'll work." She said, heading to the warp pad. "Alright. Pearl, Amethyst, Steven, and Jet – "

"Whoa, hold on a sec you can't expect to split up the barn mates, right Lapis?" Peridot said, floating over to the Warp Pad. Lapis nodded and walked over to Jet, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Agreed. And I honestly don't' trust you guys alone with all this pent up tension. I'll fly Jet over to the Kindergarten and we'll meet you there." She said, not waiting for the fusion's okay as she picked Jet up and ran out the door, launching herself into the air.

"Hey, at least there's safety in numbers?" Peridot said with an awkward shrug, flashing Steven an equally awkward smile that dropped as soon as she saw the fusion's irritated face. "Uh, anyway, to the Beta Kindergarten!" Steven said, returning Peridot's awkward smile as they warped out.

…...

Jasper watched as the canine-like creature paced back and forth in their cage, whistling lowly. "Not going to lie kid, you've got more fight in you than I thought." She said, smiling as the beast hurled themselves at the cage bars with a thunderous roar. About as tall as Jasper, the being was enough to make even the fusion think twice about messing with her and her army. "Yeah you're definitely my new favorite. I may need to train you a bit, but after that, we'll be unstoppable." She said with a grin, stepping back to admire her handiwork. It had taken a while and had been a long and grueling process, but she had done it.

She'd made an army.


End file.
